Black Orphan
by avenginggeek
Summary: complicated... please read.
1. Chapter 1

It was only with the greatest self loathing and shame that I entered Tony Stark's tower. I ignored the protesting guards as I walked into his private elevator.

A million thoughts were racing through my mind. What had brought me to this? Why was I lowering myself to asking Tony Stark for help? Images of that night came creeping back. One stupid tryst with a supposed god. A single mistake that had ruined my life. Or at least it would. I hadn't told anyone.

Stark was working alone. He didn't notice my quiet steps across the floor.

"Stark." I said. I could still back out... It wasn't too late. But even as the words crossed ny mind I knew they were wrong.

"Natasha?" he turned, confused. "I thought you were in Johannesburg with Katniss?"

Clint. I hated to think of what this would do to him. We had always just been friends, purely platonic. But I knew he wanted more. This would kill him.

"No. I came back."

"Why? Is he still there?" Stark was frowning. I knew Clint had been telling people we were together. I had let him, in an attempt to make up for past sins. But then I found out.

"He is. I didn't tell him I was leaving." my voice was cold and cutting.

Stark frowned. He could obviously tell something was wrong. He just hadn't worked out what.

"I need help."

"With what?"

"I need to get to Asgard."

"What? Why?"

Stark was unprepared for what I said next.

"I'm pregnant."

He stood there, frozen with shock. No witty retorts. No sarcastic replies.

"And it's Thor's." I whispered. My voice cracked on the last syllable.

"Oh my god..." he whispered, putting the pieces together. He put an arm around me as I started crying.

As I desperately tried to stop the tears, I realized I had something I had never had before. A friend. Not an ally of war, a real friend. As much as I hated that it was anybody as arrogant as Tony Stark, I still appreciated it. It was new and unfamiliar.

"When did it happen?"

"The night before he left."

"Oh."

I pulled away and sat on the couch. "So there's going to be a half god on Earth. God help us."

I smiled waterily."Let's hope it does."

"What are you going to do? I mean, no offence to the guy, but I doubt he's going to be a great father trans-planet."

"That's where you come in." I whispered.

Stark frowned, looking confused. "Just throwing it out there, I'm probably going to be an awful father to my own kids, let alone somebody else's."

I smiled weakly at. "No, it's nothing like that. I need you to get me to Asgard."

Stark frowned again. "I don't think that's possible. Not without the tesseract."

"I need you to find a way. Please. You're a genius. There has to be some way."

"Well... Maybe... I'd have to do a lot of research... It depends."

"On what?"

"We know we can get to Asgard through the portal. What we don't know is whether Asgard is in the same universe."

"What do you mean? There's only one universe." I said, shaking my head.

"It's complicated... We don't know how this works. Nobody anywhere does."

"Is there a way Stark?" I snapped, annoyed by his abstract musings.

"I don't know. I need to find out more. I could talk to Selvig. He probably knows more about this than anyone on Earth."

"Please do. Just don't say anything about why."

I stood up to leave. At the elevator I turned.

"Tony. Thank you." I whispered softly.

He waved it off and went back to his computer.

I left and went to a shooting range outside the city.

My aim was off. Only by a tiny amount.

Eventually they closed. I walked around the streets, not knowing where to go. I hadn't thought about where I was going to stay when I came to New York. I went back to the city and checked into a hotel. I had dinner at the restaurant and went back to my room.

My dreams were haunted by huge babies that threw hammers at me and summoned lightning to attack me with. I kept on tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

At around 7 I gave up on being rested. I showered quickly and got dressed. I ate breakfast at the restaurant and caught a cab to Stark towers. The guards didn't protest again when I entered the private elevator.

It wasn't hard finding the bedroom. I listened for a moment outside the door to make sure I wasn't interrupting anything, but there was only Stark's loud snore's. I threw open the door and went in. I was starting to pull open the heavy curtains when they automatically flew open. Tony groaned.

"What?"

"Up. You have work to do." I looked around. He had pulled the blanket over his head and rolled onto his stomach in an attempt to block the light.

"Yes. Sleeping! And bad Jarvis. You obey me, not her." Tony grumbled.

"Jarvis, get him dressed and out of bed please." I said, leaving the room. I could hear Tony protesting against Jarvis but ignored it.

10 minutes later he came out, only standing with the support of a metal hand on his back.

"I'm reprogramming you Jarvis." he grumbled, loosening the tie that was neatly tied around his neck.

"Oh I'm so scared Mr. Stark." the computer responded. I laughed slightly. Even his computer was sarcastic.

"Thank you Jarvis!" I said sweetly.

"Quite welcome Miss. Romanoff. Should you require any other services I would be happy to serve."

"Oh that's it! You're getting deleted Jarvis! I always knew I should have made you a woman!" Tony roared.

I laughed again. "Coffee please Jarvis."

"Aren't pregnant women not supposed to have caffeine?" Tony grouchily said.

I had him in a chokehold in half a second.

"You never talk about that! Ever! It stays between the two of us!" I released him.

"You're getting off to a really bad start here. First you get me out of bed before midday, and now you nearly kill me."

I rolled my eyes. "Have you contacted Selvig?"

"No."

I sighed. "He set up a lab here right?"

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure it's only a couple of blocks away."

"It is sir. I can program the address into your phone's gps if you wish?" Jarvis interjected.

"Yeah. But I'm still mad at you."

I stood up and went to the elevator. Tony followed.

"Natasha. What are you going to do if you get to Asgard? What do you think will happen?"

I sighed. "I don't know. But he has a right to know, doesn't he?"

"I guess."

We got there in only a few minutes. Eric Selvig was reading a newspaper.

"Selvig." Tony addressed him. He looked up.

"Tony Stark? Black Widow?" he seemed confused and slightly scared.

"I need your help." Tony said.

"With what?"

"What do you know about how Asgard and Earth work with regards to space and time?"

I tuned out for the scientific stuff. I didn't understand most of it.

It went on for over an hour. I nearly fell asleep at some parts.

Eventually Tony tugged at my arm. I jumped down from the counter I had been sitting on and followed him out.

"So? Is there a way?"

Tony looked around uncomfortably. "Not here. Come on." He pulled me into his sports car and we drove back to the tower. He stayed quiet until we stepped out of the elevator.

"There might be a way. It would require ridiculous amounts of energy though. And it would take time."

"Can you do it?"

"Of course I can do it, I'm a genius! But it won't be easy. Everything will be tentative. Cautious. And I'm going to need that girl. Jane... Foster."

"Okay. How long will it take?"

"Months. At best."

"What?" I cried out. "This does kind of have a time limit Tony!"

"it's this or nothing."

"Fine. Start!"

"I need to talk to some people first. This is an entirely new area for me."

I sighed and nodded. I left.

The next few weeks were hellish for me. Th constant waiting and suspense. I went to Tony every day at midday. It was mostly just to make sure he ate since whenever I asked how it was going his reply was generally complete nonsense to me.

I started feeling some of the less pleasant side effects of my condition. I would throw up the second I got out of bed, and quite regularly during the day. My emotions were all over the place. Once I even cried.

Tony did his best to try and work faster but it wasn't enough. A month passed. I started showing.

One month and three weeks after I went to him he called me at three in the morning.

"Natasha. You have to get here. Fast."

I rolled out of bed. The nausea had slowly started fading. I threw on a pair of jeans, grabbed a sweatshirt and left. I ran out of the hotel and jumped into a cab.

Stark Towers was still bright.

Tony didn't look good. His skin was pale and his face looked dirty and unshaven. There was an enthusiastic twinkle in his eyes.

"Come here Nat. I had it for a few seconds."

"Had what?"

"An Einstein Rosen bridge. It was incredible."

"You've done it?"

"Yes. And look."

He handed me an orange with a note attached.

To whomever it may concern,

Throw this back if it is at Asgard. We will explain.

"I threw it in!" Tony said with glee.

"And it's fine?"

He nodded.

I was unconvinced. I pulled a knife out of my shoe and cut the fruit open. It was perfect and fresh. I carefully sniffed it and squeezed some juice onto my finger. I licked it carefully. It was fine.

"And you're sure this will work?" I said cautiously.

He nodded. "You should suit up."

I nodded. I went down a floor in the elevator. Fury had insisted we put all of our equipment in the same place. And keep it there. Unfortunately Tony was the only one guaranteed to still keep the same place. The rest of us were too nomadic.

The black fabric was tighter than usual. I barely managed to zip it up. I didn't leave a single gun or piece of equipment there. I had no idea how these gods would react to me.

"Ready?" he asked, regarding me carefully.

I silently nodded. Now wasn't the time to back out.

Tony started doing something with his computer.

Then suddenly a black hole appeared.

"Go!" he yelled.

Without hesitation I jumped in.


	2. Chapter 2

I looked up from my catlike crouch. There was people around me.

I slowly stood up.

They were all gaping at me.

"Take me to Thor." I commanded.

They all just stood there in shock.

"I am from Midgard. Take me to Thor."

Did these people not speak English? Then one of them stepped forward. He nodded toward me and started walking. I followed, both hands automatically hovering over guns.

We were in some kind of building.

After a few minutes we reached large wooden doors. I braced myself for the worst.

The man pushed them open, revealing a large hall. At the back was a large throne. An old man sat upon it. I guessed he was Odin, Thor's father. Beside that was another throne. Thor sat on it, casually grinning.

"Agent Natasha!" he exclaimed, seeing me. "What are you- How did-"

"We need to talk."

He nodded, standing. I followed him through a side door into a long hallway.

"What is wrong? Why have you come here?"

"Because... I'm pregnant."

Thor's smile was wide. I felt a flicker of hope.. "That is wonderful news! You and Agent Barton must be very happy!"

You and agent Barton. He thought it was Clint's. "It's not Clint's."

"Then whose?"

"Yours."

His smile fell slightly. "But how?"

"The night. Before you left. I'm sorry."

"Do not be. It is not your fault. What are we going to do?"

"I don't know. That's why I came here. Ordinarily I would just get rid of it but... It didn't feel right."

"I will tell my father immediately."

"Right." I said, nodding nervously.

He strode back into the room. I nervously followed. He whispered a few words in the ear of the god. Odin stood and followed him to another room.

Odin sat on a chair.

"Father. I have news." Thor started.

"Is Midgard in danger?" he said cautiously, eying me.

"No. Agent Natasha is with child. My child."

"What?" Odin yelled.

I flinched and automatically pulled out a gun in fear.

"You fool!" Odin stood angrily. I pulled out another gun.

"Father. Calm yourself." Thor said nervously. I suddenly realized that the young god was scared of his father.

Odin quietly sat down again. He thought for a moment. "You must wed her."

"What?" I screamed. My fingers inched toward the triggers.

"As puny and unworthy as you are you still must wed."

Thor didn't say anything. I backed away. I didn't want to go against the god.

The next few days were insane and frantic. Odin announced the wedding and I was thrown into a world of dress fittings and wedding preparations. I hated it, but feared the older god too much to speak out. Thor didn't say anything about it, he merely sat through it all.

On the eve of my wedding I stayed awake. My room was next to Odin's. I heard his snore's and knew he was fast asleep.

I got out of bed and crept across my room to the wardrobe. I opened the large doors slowly.

Inside was one thing. My suit. They hadn't taken away my guns, or any of the weapons. I don't think they even realized they were weapons.

I quickly put it on. I pulled out a gun and put on the silencer.

I went outside. There was a guard outside Odin's chambers. I quickly disabled him before he could raise the alarm and went down.

I encountered many more guards before I reached my destination.

Just outside the vault, there was another guard. I didn't notice him until too late. He shouted for help. I punched him. But I could already hear footsteps.

I jumped up and grabbed a bar on the ceiling, flattening myself.

I froze when I saw Thor and several other guards. I didn't want to hurt him. It wasn't his fault.

Jumping down, I had all the guards unconscious in mere seconds. Thor seemed shocked. He froze while I ran into the vault. The tesseract wasn't hard to find. Right in the center, on display. I smashed through the glass.

I heard Thor running in as I opened the portal. I jumped in.


	3. Chapter 3

I froze as I looked around. I knew this place. I knew the cold metal walls.

Hundreds of awful memories of my childhood came rushing back.

I was in the facility. The awful horrible place where they had changed me. Where they had made me Black Widow.

I had no idea it was still running. Whenever I had the nightmares I had comforted myself with the assumption that this terrible god forsaken place must have been closed down long ago. But clearly I was wrong. It had the same awful smell of blood masked by industrial bleach. I remembered the other test subjects, the failures, had killed themselves. I never understood why I hadn't done the same.

I was still paralysed with fear when he came in. The memories I had kept locked in for so long came back to me. His smiling face injecting me with the serum.

"Our only success, come back to join us!" He clapped his hands with glee.

My mind urged myself to move. It screamed at me to do something, to kill him, to run. But my body wouldn't listen.

He approached me, limping slightly. It gave me a tiny amount of pleasure seeing that. One of the other girls had stabbed his leg and tried escaping. She had payed with her life but it gave me some comfort knowing that all the other girls hadn't just been forgotten, that at least one had made her mark. That all of them were more than innocent young children that still haunted me at night.

"Dear Natasha." One of his long fingers stroked my jaw. I flinched away. My eyes filled with tears, remembering that awful time.

"Please." my voice was little more than a choked whisper.

"The only success from the black widow program..." I wasn't the only one caught up in old memories.

Guards came in. I was powerless as they handcuffed me and escorted me to a cell.

I didn't understand how this had happened. But how did the tesseract decide where on earth you would end up? I had read Thor's file and knew he had ended up in New Mexico. That was obviously random.

But here of all places... It couldn't be random.

I curled up in the corner and cried. I couldn't take it. Being back here.

Then he came back. I stiffened at his arrogant sneer.

"How is this place still open?"

"I bought it. Mostly out of sentimentality, I must admit."

"What are you doing here?"

"Don't worry, daddy isn't trying to replace you. I haven't been doing anything too big."

Daddy. He had forced all of the girls to call him daddy.

"You're a monster."

His cold black eyes flashed with anger. "Now, you wouldn't want to make daddy angry!"

"Please. Just let me go. What do you want from me?"

"I want us to be a family again!"

I start sobbing into my arms. He smiled and left.

The next day they brought me to the medical wing.

"Wouldn't want my little girl getting sick!" he said, smiling widely and revealing his yellowed teeth. He had carefully filed each one.

But I knew the real reason. They wanted to make sure this wasn't sabotage, that I didn't have a tracking chip in me or some kind of virus.

He came to my cell later.

"You're going to make me a grandad!"

"Please... No... Leave it out of this..."

"But it's wonderful! The perfect opportunity to take another look at the black widow serum."

I leaned back against the wall. This couldn't be happening.

But it was. He gave one last vicious smile and swept out.

I cowered in the corner. What was I going to do?


	4. Chapter 4

Tony poured himself another coffee. It was too early. But Fury had damn well called a briefing.

Tony finished it and left Stark Towers. He drove to the airport where a military plane was waiting. The flight up only took around half an hour.

He saw Clint and Banner also getting off. They walked in together.

Thor was sitting there, waiting expectantly.

They all sat down. Steve joined them a minute later.

"What possible reason is there to drag me out of bed so early?" Tony groaned.

"Shut it Stark. Thor showed up in Paris. He has quite a tale to tell." Fury said.

"Indeed. A week ago Natas-"

Then Tony realized what was going on. Also how really incredibly bad it would be for Clint to find out this way.

Desperately he stood up and punched Thor to stop him from talking. He broke several bones.

There was an immediate outroar.

"What the hell are you doing Stark?" Fury yelled as Thor picked Tony up by the scruff of his suit.

"Hey! That's Armani!" Tony yelled.

"I do not understand." Thor said.

Clint, Steve and Banner watched in immense confusion.

"Put Tony down!" Fury said.

"But I believe he was trying to attack me!" Thor said.

"I'm with Fury!" Tony yelled.

Thor reluctantly lowered Tony.

"Can I got to the infirmary?" Tony asked, nursing his hand.

"Yes. Briefing.. Postponed." Fury swept out of the room muttering about children.

"Why on Midgard did you hit me?"

"Come on." Tony said grouchily, walking out.

Thor followed, confused.

"Clint can't find out that way."

"What do you mean? About Natasha and the baby?"

"Precisely."

"Why not?"

"Because, he loves her. This is too big to just drop on him."

"So we cannot tell anyone?"

"You can tell anybody but him."

"Very well." Thor was about to walk off when Tony grabbed his arm.

"What even happened?"

"She arrived, informed me of the situation. I told my father and he insisted we wed."

"She can't have taken that well."

"Indeed. On the eve of our wedding she escaped. Natasha killed several guards and used the tesseract to get back here. I followed her through the portal but for whatever reason we did not come out in the same place."

"Shit. She could be anywhere."

"Indeed."

Tony continued his walk to the infirmary.

The next few days were relatively calm. Tony was too busy moaning about his hand to wonder where Natasha was, and Thor was busy demanding the location of Jane Foster from Fury.

A week passed and Tony vaguely wondered why she hadn't shown up.

Two weeks and Thor distracted himself from the joy of being reunited with Jane for long enough to wonder where the mother of his unborn child was.

Three weeks and they both started to wonder if something had happened.

A month and Tony called Thor to voice his concerns about where Natasha might be.

It was another two weeks before they talked to Fury.

"What do you two want?"

"Many, many things. A better office than yours. A ban on early mornings." Tony said.

Both Fury and Thor glared at him.

"Actually we wish to talk about Agent Natasha."

"Romanoff? What is she to you?"

Thor and Tony looked at each other. They had agreed that telling Fury would not be a good idea.

"I'm worried that we have not heard from her."

"Why would you two have heard from her? She hates you Stark and so far as she knows you're still in Asgard."

"But-"

"But nothing. Stop wasting my time. I have high ranking military superiors to threaten." Fury said.

The two left.

Another month passed before Fury started to wonder. Sure Natasha had gone off the grid before but not without something. Not for this long without a message or sign.

Four months after Thor returned he launched an official investigation.

I winced as the guards roughly threw me back into the cell. My enlarged stomach had dark bruises from similar treatment.

Every second I prayed for someone to come. To save me.

I knew it would never happen, not here. Even if they did search, this place was off the grid. Deep in Siberia. And nobody knew about the connection. The only person outside of this base who knew was Fury. One of the conditions of me joining him was this place being erased from my records. There was nothing to connect it to me on any official or unofficial records.

This hell. Not for the first time in the past few months my eyes filled with tears at the thought of my child being born here.

I was oh so powerless. I hated it. I could do nothing to stop him from taking my baby away from me, for ever.


	5. Chapter 5

Fury idly played with a clicky pen. He hated one of his Avengers being missing. Even worse was the lack of results. It had been 5 months since he launched the official investigation and there was nothing. Not so much as a whisper. They had investigated everyone connected to every scarlet drop on Natasha's ledger but nothing.

Then he thought of something. That place. Where they had made Natasha into Black Widow.

It was something. Of course he knew very little. But while Natasha had demanded everything be erased on records, she hadn't specified about records over the internet.

Fury applauded his genius and ability to find loopholes as he booted the computer.

He quickly opened his email account. Risky yes, but unexpected. What idiot would keep government records in an email account?

He found it and read. It had been in Siberia. The doctor was still alive.. and had bought the property where the facility was.

Fury quickly called the American diplomat to Russia.

"Smith. Remember that little tryst with that bellboy?" Fury started calmly.

"I... Yes." Even over the phone Fury could tell the other man was terrified.

"I would suggest you get all files relating to the Black Widow program before I send the video to your wife."

"Yes sir."

Fury hung up and smirked.

An hour later Fury got an email. It was around 2000 pages long. He scrolled to the pages about the location. It had the exact location.

Fury called the diplomat again.

"I need you to get me permission to to raid this place."

"Yes sir." the diplomat stammered.

Half an hour later the diplomat rang again.

"Mr. Fury? The Russians also have concerns about what's going on. They will let you, but only if you agree to let some of their soldiers accompany your team."

"Agreed."

Fury had no intention of letting a bunch of Russians ruin this. Then again, they could be a comfort to the more patriotic side of Natasha. And he had heard stories about what went on there.

Fury quickly called in Stark. He was nearest.

"Yes Fury?" Tony said, sitting down across the desk.

"I think I might have found Natasha. Now I need to know what you've been hiding from me."

"Fine. I admit it. I secretly watch America's Next Top Model. The girls are hot."

"Very funny Stark. What are you not telling me about Natasha?"

"Well you're just going to make me come out and say it aren't you? Fine. She scares me a very very tiny amount. Like a fraction of a percent."

"Stark."

"Okay, an argument could be made for like 2% of scaring."

"Damn it Stark!"

"What you want to know isn't mine to tell." Tony said carefully.

"Tell me before I reopen the case for you losing the iron man suit."

"She's got a bun in the oven." Tony said immediately.

"I don't understand."

"11 months ago she came to me. She wanted help getting to Asgard because she was pregnant with Thor's child. After a while I found a way and she went to Asgard. From what Thor told me his father tried to make them get married. She didn't want to so she escaped the night before her wedding. The tesseract sent her somewhere."

"Wow."

"Yes. I wouldn't advise sending Clint on the rescue mission."

"Indeed. Thank you Stark."

"Are we going now?"

"Yes. I'm about to contact Thor and Rogers."

Stark nodded and left.

Rogers immediately answered the phone and promised to be there soon. But Fury didn't manage to get through to Thor. He eventually gave up.

Fury met the two in the briefing table.

"What about Hulk?" Tony said, looking pointedly at the empty spaces.

"Not suited to this. Now, Tony you already know what this is. Rogers. You two are going on a rescue mission for Agent Romanoff. It's deep in Siberia."

"Yes sir."

Fury nodded and left.

Steve and Tony went up. There was already a bird waiting.

The pilot knew exactly where he was going. They stopped in Moscow and he told them they were going with some Russian soldiers. The ordinary soldiers seemed terrified by the man made of iron and ridiculously muscular guy wearing stars and stripes. They edged over on the seat, eager to keep their distance.

They landed in a snowy forest. Stark flew ahead, and quickly found the facility. It had watchtowers, and guards patrolling everywhere. He quickly blew up the towers before flying back.

"Come on."

Steve immediately followed, but the Russians seemed a lot more hesitant.

"You owe me-" Tony arrogantly started, but then the Russians walked forward.

"No, you owe me." Steve said.

"There's still chances for them to desert." Tony grumbled.

They quickly entered the facility. It was crawling with guards that soon died at the hands of Tony and Steve. The Russians killed one guard all together.

They entered the building. There wasn't as many guards, but still a lot.

They went down to the basement. There were cells lining every wall. Most were empty, except for a few near the back. None of them were Natasha. All were children, young and innocent. They were all bruised, with deep cuts down their backs. Their childish pleas hardened all of the men's hearts. What kind of a monster could do that to children? But it also scared Steve and Tony for another reason; if someone could do that to kids, what would they do to Natasha?

It was a question Tony wasn't sure he wanted answered.

They continued going through the building, checking every room. On the second floor they found her. It was awful.

The room was dark, and only lit by a tiny window in the corner.

Natasha's wrists had angry red scars. The area around them was flaming red. There were spots of dark red blood on the walls. You could smell the blood from the doorway.

Natasha was muttering something unintelligible. You could tell from the childish, pleading tone it wasn't good. Her body was bony and her trademark killer thighs had wasted away to twigs.

Tony stared at her flat stomach. Obviously she had had the baby.

While Steve went in and gently picked her up, Tony left quietly. He ran through the corridors. Then he heard the loud piercing cry of a baby. He ran towards it. He got to the last room on the corridor. The door was open.

A tiny baby was on an x-ray machine. It cried loudly as a man leered over it.

"Step away from the baby."

"I'm afraid you're too late." The man said.

"No I amn't."

"Yes you are. I'm little more than a decoy."

"What?" Tony said angrily.

He gestured out the window. Tony looked and his heart sank as he saw a helicopter leaving. A man holding a larger blonde baby waved at him.

Tony punched the wall. Of course it was a decoy. The baby on the machine had black hair and skin that was way too dark. It couldn't possibly be related to Natasha or Thor.

Tony punched the decoy and then the wall. He flew through the hole and after the helicopter. The man clearly hadn't anticipated that.

Tony didn't know what he could do without harming the baby. Shoot the helicopter, baby blows up.

He flew up and grabbed onto the helicopter.

"Give me it!" he yelled.

"Never."

Tony's grip was loose. The force of the blades wasn't helping.

The man pulled out a gun and shot both his hands. Tony fell down, barely managing to slow before he hit the ground.

He looked up. The helicopter was too far away.

Steve came out, carrying Natasha. The Russians followed.

"What the hell was that Stark?" He yelled.

"Nothing..."

"It was not nothing! You freaking well deserted!"

"Well, I'm back!" Tony joked arrogantly.

Steve rolled his eyes. "Why don't you take her back to the plane? She needs medical attention."

Tony nodded. He took Natasha and quickly flew back. The pilot did what he could with limited supplies and basic medical skills.

The main thing she needed was nourishment.

Steve and the Russians showed up fairly quickly. They immediately left.

The pilot flew them straight to base.

Natasha was sent straight to the infirmary. Tony went to Fury.

"The guy still has the baby."

"And how the hell did you let that happen?"

"There was a decoy. I went after him but he got away."

"Do you realise that this is about more than just a baby? Natasha leaving in the first place was awful for diplomacy with Asgard, but now the damn baby's gone too."

"In my defence I planted a tracking chip."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Good. Now get the hell out of my office!"

Tony left. He went straight to his office and opened the map.

"Jarvis show me where the guy is."

"Very well sir."

A bright blinking light appeared over Berlin.

He zoomed in on Germany.

The light was moving fast. Clearly he had traded in the helicopter.

"Calculate where he's going."

"Given his past route, he is most likely headed towards Buenos Aires."

"Thanks." Tony murmured, thinking. What was so special about Argentina?

Unless... "Jarvis, show me all other possible routes."

A million lines appeared.

"Narrow it down to places Russia is allies with."

A lot disappeared. "What about places the USSR was allies with."

Only two lines remained. Both led to Cuba.

Ironic, Tony thought to himself. During the Cold War the Russians kept their missiles in Cuba. And now a lone Russian was planning on keeping a baby with the potential for extreme power.

He couldn't go to Fury with a hunch. He would have to observe.

Sighing, Tony opened minesweeper. It was going to be a long night.

Steve looked at the master assassin lying on the bed next to him. Her face was soft and pale. He wondered what had made her the way she was. So guarded. So scared.

Steve could see through the facade. She was just scared... Seeing her like this made his gut twist into knots. She was always so hard. But she seemed so delicate now. Almost like a child, so defenseless.

Then her smooth brow creased.

"No... No.." she muttered. "Please don't.."

Natasha was clearly having a nightmare. Her head went from side to side, and then her entire body started spasming.

"Please!" she cried out. "Not the baby!" Her whole body went rigid mid-spasm.

Steve froze.

Then the heart monitors flatlined. A nurse ran over. Steve was pushed away as more nurses and doctors ran to Natasha.

He waited until they got her heart to beat again and stormed out. He went straight to Tony's office and entered.

"Capsicle, nice of you to join me."

"What the hell aren't you telling me?" Steve yelled.

"Careful, get too mad and you'll melt."

Steve punched Tony. He had wanted to do that for over a year.

Unsurprisingly, Tony blacked out. His nose started bleeding.

Cursing his kindness, Steve threw Tony over his shoulder and went to the infirmary. Tony quickly woke up and left.

"What aren't you telling me?"

"That colour is all wrong for you." Tony said, gesturing towards Steve's shirt.

"Have you already forgotten?" Steve replied, pointing at Tony's nose.

"You're really bad at threatening physical violence."

"Tell me, Howard." Steve easily said.

Tony froze.

"I'm sorry.." Steve said, realising his mistake instantly.

Tony grunted.

"Just tell me."

"Natasha has a kid."

"A... A kid? I don't understand."

"Well, when a man and a woman-"

"I know! But who's the father? And when?"

"Thor. It was conceived the night before he left. Natasha came to me when she found out, to get to Asgard. Eventually she got there but they forced her to marry Thor, so she escaped but the tesseract sent her to that place. She had the baby and the doctor who was running it got away with it."

"Woah."

"Yep."

"Also I suspect that place is connected with her past, yet another thing Fury failed to mention. I'm having Jarvis access everything on his personal computer right now."

"Sorry to interrupt sir, but I'm finished."

"Perfect timing."

Tony quickly opened it. He searched for Natasha's name. The main filewas an email titled

NATASHA ROMANOFF - INFORMATION FROM ERASED PORTION OF RECORD.

Tony opened it.

The two quickly read it.

"Jarvis, search for Black Widow program."

The results were instant. Another email, from yesterday.

It took a while for the two of them to read it all. It was terrible.

"And Natasha was in this stuff?"

"I guess so." Tony said, slightly stunned. "No wonder she's so screwed up."

"That was her childhood... And I thought mine was bad." Steve said. "True that."

"That guy's a monster."

"And he has an innocent baby."

"We need to do something!"

"There's not much we can."

"We can go after it!"

"Easier said than done. It's moving too fast."

"Do you have any idea where it might be?"

Jarvis automatically opened the map with the tracking chip.

"Sweet Jesus Stark! You know where he is?"

"Maybe."

Steve punched Tony and ran out. He quickly changed into the Captain America suit and grabbed his shield.

Steve ran up and jumped in a plane. Nobody stopped him.

He took off immediately. He heard shouts below as they realized he wasn't supposed to be doing this.

He compared the position of the plane with where he was and started flying towards it.

Tony joined him after a while, flying alongside the plane.

Steve's radio beeped.

"How did it go?" Steve asked.

"Perfect. Fury didn't suspect a thing. Immediately sent me to go after you."

"Good."

The two flew alongside each other in silence. Steve carefully watched Tony, who had Jarvis constantly guiding him.

Then Steve saw a fleck on the horizon. He pushed the plane forward.

"That it?" Steve asked.

"Definitely."

It was an ordinary air carrier, nothing special. Steve turned on auto pilot and removed the harness tying him to the chair. He pulled his legs onto the seat and in one quick movement opened the plane. He climbed out on top and crawled over, nearer the carrier. Steve jumped for it and quickly grabbed on. He manouvred himself to the door, and shoved it open. He jumped in and closed it. There were 4 very confused guards.

He took advantage of their confusion and took them out in one quick blow.

Then there was only the man, holding the baby.

"Decisions decisions decisions." The man had a thick Russian accent.

Steve didn't notice as the man's hand slowly slipped into his pocket.

"Go for me and risk harming the baby. Or..."

The man pulled out a gun and had it immediately ready to shoot.

"Get shot. Actually, the only real option is get shot and die."

Steve drew on all his acting skills to look terrified.

The man shot straight at Steve's head. Steve waited until the last second to pull up his shield. The bullet easily rebounded and went straight into the man's shoulder. Steve took the gun and went into the cockpit. He put the gun against the pilots head.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Easy way, you go where I want and survive this. Hard way, I kill you. And beware, you can't kill me."

The pilot gulped. "Easy way." He also had a strong Russian accent.

"Good."

Steve patted the guys shoulder and left.

The baby was crying loudly from the whimpering man's arms.

Steve gently picked it up.

"Everything go ok?" Tony asked.

"Yes."

"Good. I'm taking your plane back for you."

"Great."

They flew back slowly, scared of Fury's wrath.

He was standing above deck, holding a very large gun.

Tony landed first. He got out of the plane and immediately had the very large gun pointed at him.

"What the hell did you do Stark?" Fury yelled.

"You know, I'd really prefer to have this conversation without a gun being pointed at me."

"Too bad! You played me!"

"No, I didn't."

"Then what the hell was that?"

"Ok, so maybe I played you a it wasn't my idea!"

"What, you're trying to pin this on Rogers?"

"He's done similar things, before he was a Capsicle."

"That's not the point! This has you written all over it!"

"You're wrong." Steve said, getting off his plane.

Fury turned to glare at him.

"Please! Don't try and cover for him."

"I amn't covering. I thought of it."

"Don't lie to me."

"Regardless of who did it, I got the guy."

Fury walked over to the plane.

"And you shot him!"

"True. But only to incapacitate him. With all due respect sir, not only did I have to fly back with him, but I also had to protect the baby."

Fuming, Fury stormed back in.

"Well that went well." Tony said arrogantly, striding forward. "Thanks to my brilliant intervention no doubt."

Steve shook his head. "Five seconds ago you were all too eager to give me all the credit."

"Okay, so maybe you could get 9%. But really it was all me."

"Really you just flew beside me, gave directions and took the plane back."

"That is not true! I was a vital part of this mission!"

"Please." Steve said, striding forward.

"Hey! This isn't over!" Tony said angrily, running after him.

"Yes it is."

"No it isn't."

"Yes it is."

"No it isn't."

"Yes it is."

"No it isn't!"

"Yes it is."

"No it isn't."

Steve yawned pointedly. "Yes it is."

"No it isn't."

"What are you, 5? It's over."

"Compared to you I might as well be!"

Steve raised his eyebrows. "That really the best you could come up with Stark? You're losing your touch."

"No I amn't!"

"You really are."

"No I amn't."

"I can do this all day."

"Damn you." Tony said, storming inside.

Steve smirked and followed.

I struggle to focus. To differentiate reality from hallucination. My vision blurs. Dark shapes loom over me.

Then slowly my vision starts to clear and for one paralyzing moment I think He is there. But vague and distant memories of strong muscular arms lifting me from that room come back to me.

I can't still be there. But then where? This too bright white room

is unfamiliar. I don't know this fair haired man in blue leaning over me.

But he surely knows me. His face is filled with concern and worry.

Who is he, that would care for a mere child like me? Nobody else does. I think of my mother. Her kind face. I have so little memories of her. I was snatched away from her by rough soldiers. They claimed that one day I would help save Russia. My poor mother didn't dare question them.

That was a year ago. The soldiers took me to the facility.

There are other little girls here. Petrova. She is simple, and was round when she came. Now her elbows stick out from pale papery skin. Elsa, who used to be so full of joy. Demi is the oldest. There used to be another girl but she is gone. All we know is that one day when she went for her injection something went wrong. Her screams kept me awake for that entire night and in the morning the guards said she had died because she disobeyed them.

Then another man appears over me. His hair is dark, and grows around his mouth. I scream as I realise who it is. Demetri, a guard. He hates me. Demetri always hits me as much as he can.

I do not stop screaming.


	6. Chapter 6

I curl up. He is still there. I automatically tense, waiting for the hard lash of the whip.

But it doesn't come. I dare to peek out from my arms and see he has backed away.

My mind struggles to understand this. Why on earth would he back away?

Steve looked at her, and then at Tony.

"What the hell's wrong with her?" Tony asks.

"I don't know... Go tell somebody. Fury."

Tony walked away.

He turned back to the shaking redhead. His hand reached out to pat her on the back but she shriveled away.

She whispered something that Steve didn't understand. It sounded like Russian.

"Natasha?"

She whimpered.

"Please. I'm not going to hurt you."

She shook her head and said something in Russian.

Then Tony came back, followed by Fury.

"What the hell is going on?" he yelled.

I look up at the loud and deep voice. I think it is words but not in Russian.

I see his face and whimper. Alexei. Another guard. I recognise his dark almost black skin. He does not whip us but instead forces us to undress. He touches us to pleasure himself. I do not understand it at all. He also undresses after a while.

But there is no fighting him. It is pointless. He does use the whip if you resist.

With resignation my slow fingers slowly start to remove my clothes. The three men look, eyes wide as I toss aside my plain white top. I begin to shiver slightly with the cold air against my exposed skin. As I start to remove my trousers the fair haired man intervenes. He forces the top over my head.

He speaks some soft words, but again I do not understand.

I shake my head frantically. "No! Do you not understand? He will use the whip!" I point at Alexei.

But the fair haired man does not understand. Nor do any of them.

Then Alexei says something.

They all leave. Demetri gives one last lingering look at me before he goes.

"So what the hell's wrong with her?" Tony immediately said.

"How the hell do you expect me to know?" Fury said.

"Maybe..."

"What?"

"It's just that when I was a kid and got beat up pretty regularly I would expect it. Sometimes I would even be ready and waiting in the alleyway just to get it over with."

"What are you saying?"

"That place we rescued her from. It used to be pretty bad for her right? When she was a kid? At that place the guards used to abuse her a lot."

"Yeah, she used to be raped and hit and stuff. What's your point?"

"What if she thinks she's still a kid?"

"That's ridiculous." Fury immediately said.

"No, he could be right." Tony said. "I mean, think about it. None of us knew anything about her childhood. Even I barely knew she was Russian. She was keeping all of this shit repressed. And that can't have been good for her mental health, keeping all that buried. But then she was back there. All of those suppressed memories coming back combined with the stress of having her baby taken away from her on what was probably the day he was born could easily have caused her to just crack."

"So what the hell would you propose?"

"If I'm right she needs immediate psychiatric help. Even if I amn't right I'd still say she's gonna need therapy."

Fury sighed and left.

"We should probably tell some people." Tony said.

"True. Not Clint."

Tony nodded. "Not Clint. Banner though. He'd probably care."

"And he might have more theories."

"True. I'll tell him to come."

The two men nodded and left.

I wake up in a cold sweat. My sheets are damp. I struggle to untangle myself and get away.

The room is dark. It is clearly night.

I need to get away from here. Away from Demetri and Alexei.

I stand and walk to the door. It slides open as I approach. The corridors are bright.

I walk through the labyrinth and pass nobody.

As I approach an elevator I see a man. My body seems to know what it is doing as I walk forward. He does not notice my footsteps. My limbs have a mind of their own as they strike out and knock him unconscious.

But then the lights on the wall flash red. I freeze. They have caught me. I jump into the elevator and press up. It is quick and the doors soon slide open. I step out and realise I am on a plane. Then Demetri steps out of identical sliding doors.

He says my name.

That is enough for me. I run to the edge.

"Natasha!" His voice is panicked.

I jump. For a short second the cold air rushes against my skin. But then my body splashes into the icy water. I struggle to think. My brain is numbed by the cold. I kick weakly to stay on the surface but harsh waves crash over me, pulling me down.

Steve grabbed his earpiece off his bedside locker and ran out of his bedroom.

"Agent Hill. Can you tell me about the situation?" He said into the tiny device.

"Agent Romanoff left her quarters a short while ago. We didn't realise until she knocked out one of the guards on patrol. She's currently on an elevator going up to the deck."

Steve ran up the stairs, taking two at a time in his desperation to get there before Tony or Fury. Who knew what Natasha would do?

"She's reached the deck. I've got a visual. Stark is there too."

Steve swore and started taking three at a time. He reached the deck.

Tony was frozen in place.

"Stark! What the hell happened?" Steve yelled.

"She jumped..."

Tony was staring straight ahead. Steve ran to it. He could see a dark figure slowly sinking.

He didn't hesitate before jumping straight in. He swam down. She was deep. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her up, getting a better grip around her slender waist. He put all his energy into swimming up. Natasha's body was limp and cold.

Steve leaped up and grabbed onto the edge of the deck, throwing Natasha before pulling himself up.

Her damp body glistened slightly in the moonlight but showed no movement. Her chest was still, betraying no signs of a beating heart.

Steve desperately started doing CPR.

"Send a medical team." He said into the earpiece.

They arrived almost immediately and pushed him away.

Tony was still frozen there, staring at the same spot.

Steve walked over and punched him.

"What the hell Stark? Are you an idiot?"

"Ok, ow! And what the fuck is it with you and punching me?"

"You're an asshole that's what!"

"Wow, you said a naughty word!" Tony said sarcastically.

Steve punched him again. "What the hell is wrong with you? You just stood there! She could have died!"

Tony punched Steve, breaking his own hand.

He hit back, punching Tony's gut. He doubled over.

"Looks like Captain America's gone bad."

Steve punched the asshole again. "You just don't give a shit about anyone but yourself do you?" He yelled.

"Not true. I care about the suit."

Rage burned through Steve and he punched Tony's arrogant face.

A strong arm grabbed Steve. He shook it off and kneed Tony's crotch.

Tony coughed up blood.

Looking at the drop of scarlet on the concrete brought back memories for Steve. His own blood, splattered in the back of an alleyway. Bullies leaving him to die, laughing at his pain.

He froze for long enough for Tony to lunge and strangle him. Or at least try.

He quickly shook him off, and backed away, horrified at what he had done. But Tony just kept on going after him. He coughed up more blood. A drop landed on his white cotton vest.

Somebody from the medical team came over. Again, he was pushed away as they examined Tony.

He went back to Natasha. She had a weak pulse but wasn't breathing.

He watched as they lifted her bony body onto a gurney.

He followed them in and to the infirmary.

He walked forward. They didn't push him back.

Steve reached out and grabbed her cold damp hand.

Then suddenly her body spasmed. Her back arched and she started coughing.

He was pushed out of the way as she coughed up two lungfuls of sea water.

Confident that she would be okay, he went over to Tony.

He was unconscious. Steve felt terrible looking at what he'd done. Tony's face was bloody, his nose broken.

Filled with guilt and remorse, Steve left.

The next morning Banner arrived. Steve had to awkwardly explain why Tony was in the infirmary.

"Look, it's not your fault. Tony can be a real asshole sometimes. Actually pretty much all the time. That and him doing absolutely nothing about Natasha, it was only natural you snapped. Really I'm surprised you managed to keep it together for this long. When something like that happens to someone you love-"

"Someone I what?"

"Love." Bruce smiled slightly. "You hadn't figured it out yet?"

"I.. I don't love Natasha."

"Sure you don't. Come on."

Bruce started walking towards the infirmary. Steve followed.

Bruce gasped when he saw Tony.

Steve looked down. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Look, this is nothing. I've done far worse when I got mad. I've actually killed people because I lost my temper. And destroyed entire buildings." Bruce joked lightheartedly.

Steve cracked a smile.

"Also, nice job. Congratulations. You've probably just performed a successful Tony-ectomy for at least a few days. Being beat up by a 94 year old should really really damage his ego."

Steve started to smile, but then heard his earpiece.

"Agent Rogers, you are requested to go to the briefing room. If Agent Banner is with you bring him." It was Agent Hill.

"Come on. We have to go to the briefing room."

Steve walked ahead.

Fury was already there.

"You aren't staying here." He immediately said.

"Me? That's fine. I didn't really expect to be welcomed with open arms after last time." Bruce said.

"No. Not just you. Rogers, Stark, Romanoff. My ship can't take this many god damn superheros. And the superheros can't take this many superheros."

"What? What about Natasha?"

"I can arrange for accommodation, a therapist... But not on this ship. It's my ship and you're ruining it."

Fury vaguely reminded Steve of his two cousins. They were of course long dead, but Steve remembered a time he had gone to visit them. They had been arguing over some doll.

"It's my doll and you're ruining it! Go away! I don't want to play with you anymore smelly!" The precocious five year old had pushed away her younger sister.

"And you always make the gym smell weird!" Fury said. His voice sounded strangely high pitched and whiney.

Steve burst out laughing. Even Bruce sniggered.

Fury's one eye glared at them.

"You do realise we aren't the only people who use the gym? The vast majority of the people on this ship most likely use it." Steve said.

"Regardless of who makes the gym smell. You're going and that's final."

"So you're planning on sticking Natasha in some crazy home? Nice white padded walls, jacket that closes at the back?" Bruce said.

Steve stopped laughing at the mention of Natasha.

"Well, that depends..."

"I'll take her." Steve immediately said.

Bruce and Fury looked at him in surprise.

"You will?" Bruce questioned.

"You realise what this means? You might as well be adopting, the amount of work she'll probably take. And you should probably learn Russian."

"How long do I have?"

"I'll give you 2 months. This isn't definite. We will have to access the possible risks to both you and her."

"Of course sir."

"Dismissed."

Fury left.

"Of course you don't love her." Bruce smirked casually.

"I don't. I'm... doing it for the mission."

"Yeah, the mission to win Natasha's heart."

"That's not a mission."

"It's your only mission right now."

"I'm doing it for the mission to... Keep the Avengers as a viable defense for the earth."

"Sure you are."

"Go away."

Bruce smirked again and left.

"You know that's what annoyed me most about Tony!" Steve yelled after him.

Bruce laughed and continued walking. "You call that anger?"

Steve smiled and left.

Fury arranged for a Russian teacher to go to Steve, along with a psychiatrist for Natasha.

Surprisingly, Steve felt Russian rather easy to learn. Perhaps because even before all of this happened, whenever Natasha felt safe enough she would occasionally slip back into her native tongue. And now it was all she said.

He would go see her everyday. She seemed to trust him, more and more each day.

He practised his Russian on her. She was delighted to finally be able to talk to someone, even if it was only with Steve's limited understanding.

Those two months went far too fast.

Fury had bought them an apartment in New York, near Stark Towers. He had them flown into JFK.

On the plane Natasha and Steve were talking casually.

Then something came back to Natasha. She froze.

It was her... and Steve was there.

They were on a plane...

"I'd sit this one out Cap." It was her that was speaking.

"I don't see how I can." Steve said.

"These guys come from legend, Captain. They're basically gods."

"There's only one god ma'am. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that."

Then Steve jumped out.

Just as suddenly as it started I am jerked back to the present.

"What..." I whisper, struggling to make sense of what I saw.

"What?" Steve says urgently, immediately at my side.

"I... I just saw you... I don't know.. I said something about gods.. And you said something about there only being one god and then... you jumped out of a plane."

I feel tears in my eyes. What the hell was that? Was it even real?

He wraps his arms around me, soothingly stroking my back.

"Please... Just tell me... Was it real?" I whisper.

He nods.

I start sobbing. My already shaky view on reality has been turned upside down.

"Why was I calling you Captain? And who were the gods?"

"I..." Steve didn't know what to say. How the hell are you supposed to explain it all? "It's complicated."

"What the hell's wrong with with me?" I whisper.

Steve was hesitant. Her psychiatrist had said if she found out too much in one go it could trigger a relapse.

"Nothing's wrong with you."

I don't believe him. If nothing's wrong with me then what the hell was that?

I snuggle into him for the rest of the flight, puzzling over what I saw.

The apartment is nice. Only one bedroom. Steve immediately leaves me and goes into the kitchen.

"What the hell Fury? One bedroom?" Steve says, immediately on the phone.

"Banner told me it might be... appreciated." Steve could tell Fury was laughing his head off.

"I thought romantic relations were strictly prohibited."

"Agent Rogers!" Fury fake gasped. "Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?"

"I.. No! You can't just put us in the same bedroom."

"I can and I have."

Steve could hear laughter on the other end. It seemed that pretty much everyone onboard was listening.

"Fury-"

"Goodbye, and sweet dreams."

Fury hung up.

Steve growled and tossed the phone into his pocket.

He went back out.

"I can sleep on the couch."

"No, you don't have to."

"Really, it's fine."

He grabbed a few blankets from the bedroom and threw them onto the couch.

"Do you have any idea how to cook?" Natasha said, opening the fully stocked fridge.

"No."

"Great. Let's go out." she said, smiling.

He grabbed a jacket and followed her out.

They wandered around for a while until they found a nice 60's style diner.

Steve ordered for her.

"So. Is this your first time in New York?" He asked. He already knew both the truth and what she would say.

"No. Have you?"

"Yes. A long long time ago. It's changed a lot." Not exactly a lie. He just left out the part where the New York he knew existed 70 years ago.

They continued talking lightly. Occasionally she would say something that he knew was wrong, like she had never been to Europe or Asia.

The food arrived but Natasha barely touched it.

After the finished, or at least he finished, he ordered two ice cream cones. He payed and they walked out.

Natasha suggested they go for a walk and finish their ice creams.

No matter how long it had been, he still remembered the way to Central Park.

The sun hadn't quite gone down yet. Some light still peaked out from between buildings.

Other couples were out walking too. It reminded Steve of similar images from back when he and Bucky had been young. It was always Bucky that got the girl though. Even when Bucky set him up on blind dates Steve would just get nervous and awkward.

Natasha shivered slightly. She hadn't thought to bring a coat. He automatically took off his jacket and slipped it over her narrow shoulders.

"You don't have to."

"It's fine. I want to."

She smiled and leant against him as they continued walking. His arm wrapped itself around her shoulders.


	7. Chapter 7

Natasha kept on having flash backs. Tiny snippets. It was all on wherever it was they used to be, the ship-plane thing.

She didn't tell anyone. She was afraid they would contradict her, tell her she was just day dreaming. She knew it was real.

And so the days turned into months. Summer into fall.

One night Steve had lit a fire in the tiny fireplace in their apartment.

"You really are beautiful." he whispered, a gentle finger stroking her cheek.

"I love you." She whispered, a lump in her throat.

"I love you too." He whispered back.

They kissed. Her legs wrapped around him.

"Take me. Now." Came the lusty whisper in his ear.

He was all to happy to obey.

The next morning Natasha woke up first. She threw on one of Steve's shirts and went into the kitchen.

The pancakes were just cooking when he came out.

"Special occasion?"

"Not really." Natasha said chirpily.

He grinned and grabbed her waist.

She giggled and turned to kiss him. After a while they smelt burning. She immediately turned back to the burnt pancakes.

"Why don't we eat out?" He suggested.

She pouted. "Eating out requires clothes..."

She trailed a finger up his bare chest.

He smiled. His hands roamed up her slender thighs.

She kissed him, nibbling seductively on his lower lip. Her thighs wound tightly around his waist. He lifted her onto the counter and quickly unbuttoned her shirt.

"Wow." Natasha said, struggling to catch her breath. She leant her head against a cupboard.

"Wow seems like the right word alright." While he wasn't actually out of breath, he still seemed... exhilerated.

Then she remembered something. She was sitting at a table. Steve was there, and... Demetri?

Then Alexei threw something on the table. They were bloodied cards.

Natasha didn't pay attention to the words being spoken. She at the cards, and the men around her.

Then somebody called Demetri... Tony? And they referred to Alexei as Fury.

She snapped out of it. "I want to meet Tony." It was the first thing that randomly came out of her mouth.

"What? Why?"

"You guys are friends right? So why can't I meet him?" Natasha said.

"It's more complicated than that..."

"What? Are you embarassed by me? Do you just never want me to meet your friends?" she said, close to tears.

"No..."

She angrily stormed into the bedroom and slammed the door.

He heard the lock click and sighed. He walked over and knocked on the door.

"Natasha?"

"Go away!" Came the shrill reply. He heard crying.

"Please just open the door!"

"No!"

"Please. I'll take you to see Tony."

A moment later the door opened, revealing a perky, dry eyed Natasha.

"Really?" She said excitedly.

Steve sighed and nodded.

They got dressed quickly and walked out.

They caught a cab to Stark Towers. Natasha remembered flashes. She had been there before... It wasn't for a good reason...

The guards didn't try stop them as they entered the private elevator.

"Pepper! You're finally back from San Diego. You know, I really don't understand why you had to go to Comic Con because of the comic book about me..." Tony said, not looking around.

"It's me." Steve said.

She remembered more as Stark turned. He definitely wasn't Demetri...

"Tony... You're Iron Man..." Natasha said in perfect English, much to the surprise of both men.

"Yes."

"I have to go..." I whisper, before turning and running. I run out of Stark Towers. Memories fill my mind. I can't focus. There's too much crowding my mind. I keep on running, desperate to get away. I slow after a while. I'm near Central Park. I walk towards the trees. I need silence, somewhere I can just think.

I sink to the ground. The dry autumn leaves crunch beneath me. I feel as though there was a wall blocking parts of my memory, but now it has been destroyed, with nothing to stop the flood of memories.

I slowly manage to make some sense of it. Figure out what it is, what it mean


	8. Chapter 8

Fury frowned.

"Sir, there's a bird requesting permission to land." Agent Hill said.

"Don't give it." Fury replied.

"You might want to hear it before you say that."

Sighing, Fury rolled out of bed and followed Hill to the control room.

"Who the hell are you and why do you want to land?" Fury growled.

"It's me. Natasha."

"What?" Fury said, shocked. "What the hell are you doing here?" He roared, temper rising. Last he heard Natasha was still a nutjob.

"I can explain when you let me land."

"Fine. Permission granted."

Fury was already storming towards Natasha as she got out of the plane.

"What the fuck is going on?"

"I'm better." Natasha said simply, walking past the confused Fury.

"But... But..."

"Do I still have the same quarters? Or have you thrown away the crazy person's stuff?"

"I... All of your stuff is still there."

"Thank you."

Natasha calmly walked inside. She went to her room and changed out of the short dress she had put on that morning and put on some sweatpants and a tank top. She went straight to the empty gym.

Natasha struggled to do even the simplest things that used to be part of her daily routine.

It killed her when she couldn't even do a push up. She screamed in frustration.

"Natasha." It was Steve.

"What the hell do you want?" She said through gritted teeth.

"Please. Just come back to New York with me."

"Never. You lied to me."

"Please, just-"

"No! Get the fuck away from me! You lied to me you asshole! You knew the whole time and not once did you say anything!"

"The doctors said-"

"Who gives a shit what the doctors said? You're nothing more than a selfish lying asshole and I will never ever forgive you for this!"

"Please... I didn't mean to..."

"Well you did. Now get the hell away from me!"

"I'll fight for you."

She punched him. He staggered back, nose bleeding.

"Get the hell out." She said coldly.

He gave her one last longing glance and walked out.

She went over to the weights and picked up the smallest one. Even that was hard for her.

Natasha trained constantly. Every spare second she would be in the gym. She hated being weak.

Gradually she started building herself up again. It wasn't healthy, mentally or physically, but it worked. She strained herself to the point that even Fury started wondering exactly how safe it was. But he never objected. He wanted his master assassin back. Once she was back to normal everything would be. Or at least that was what he told himself.

Steve left on the same day he came. Fury practically threw him into the plane. Steve could be a distraction for her.

Then one day everything went horribly wrong. It got so screwed up Fury could barely remember his own name.

It started when a group of Asgardian soldiers appeared in the engine room. Nobody realized until one of the engines was sabotaged.

A code red alert was called. Natasha, who was, as usual, in the gym, immediately went to the control room.

"What's going on?"

"We have no idea. One of the engines was shut down. All we have is this."

He gestured toward a computer screen. Natasha looked at it.

You could barely see anything it was so dark. Then half a face was caught with a narrow shaft of light.

"Freeze the screen." Natasha said commandingly. "Zoom."

She peered at the screen. She knew that face from somewhere.

"Pull up that photo. Of Thor's friends, in New Mexico."

The two were placed beside each other.

"Zoom in on the woman's face." Fury said, boarding Natasha's train of thought.

They were one and the same.

"But that means they're Asgardian. Why would they be attacking us?" Fury said.

"I don't know. But I think it's time to suit up." Natasha replied grimly. She ran and changed into the suit. She grabbed as many guns as possible.

"Where are they now?" She said into the earpiece.

"They're still near the third engine. I don't think they even know where they're going." Hill replied.

"Good."

Natasha ran down. She slowed when she got nearer. She could hear them talking.

"Where do you think they're keeping Thor?" It was deep. Probably a guy.

"I don't know, but I already want to leave this place." A woman's voice.

"As do I. We ought to go." Another guy.

Natasha quickly struck as one of them turned the corner. It was a red haired man.

"Who is there?" The woman called out.

Natasha stayed quiet.

Another walked forward. A blonde guy with a goatee. Natasha didn't hesitate in hitting him.

She quickly shot the woman's shoulder.

Natasha was alone. Or so she thought until she felt a bullet rip through her stomach. She didn't make a sound as she crumpled to the ground.

"Funny. These puny Midgard weapons are very effective." The third man said. His jet black hair was tied back, as usual. He threw down the gun and gestured to the soldiers to follow him.

"Why the hell have we lost contact with her?" Fury roared.

"I don't know sir." Agent Hill said, totally unfazed by his anger.

"Well find out!"

She opened the security cameras.

"Everyone shut the hell up!" She roared, straining to hear.

The frantic typing stopped.

She turned the volume up and hit play.

There was two shots fired. And then...

"Funny. These puny Midgard weapons are very effective."

Her blood ran cold. That very definitely wasn't Natasha.

"We need to send someone down."

Fury nodded.

"I'll contact Stark, Rogers, Thor ... Barton. This a serious situation." Hill said.

"Whatever. I'm going down."

"Sir, I really don't think that's a good idea. We have no idea how many people they have or what their aim is."

"Just damn well call them." Fury said, storming out.

He quickly went down. For now at least his main priority was just getting Natasha out.

She was lying there. Fury kept his gun ready as he knelt down. Her pulse was still strong. He threw her light and slender body over his shoulder and backed out. He just turned the corner when a bullet went through his other shoulder. He roared in pain and shot behind him several times.

Fury ran to the elevator. It took them straight to the infirmary.

Natasha woke up almost immediately. She pushed away the doctor and nurses.

"I'm fine. Let me go."

"Just bandage her and give her some pain meds." Fury said.

The doctor instantly started arguing. "She can't possibly go back out and fight! She's been shot!"

"Really? I hadn't noticed. Natasha, you feel okay?"

"Better than okay." She lied.

A nurse reluctantly bandaged her stomach and gave her some drugs. They did the same for Fury.

The two wounded soldiers left the infirmary.

"Let's wait. See if they make a move."

Natasha nodded. They went to the control room. At the armory she paused.

"You go ahead."

Fury nodded and continued walking.

Natasha went in. She grabbed every weapon she possibly could and went to the control room.

Fury was already there.

"Stark's arrived. Thor is just landing now. Rogers is incoming. Barton's on his way. He won't be here for a few hours." Fury updated her.

"Rogers? He's coming?" She said.

"Yes. And you had better learn to work together."

"No way in hell am I working with him."

"Too bad. I've already decided to split you into two groups. You're going with Rogers whether you like it or not." Natasha didn't miss the slightly threatening edge.

She stayed quiet.

Stark arrogantly strode in. "You just can't live without me can you?"

It was obvious nobody had told him why he had been called in.

Thor came in only a minute or two later. He stared at Natasha. He had heard a lot of rumors about her being... mentally unbalanced.

Steve was a minute later.

They all sat down at the briefing table.

"An unknown number of extraterrestrial hostiles have appeared on board." Hill said.

"What?" Thor said blankly.

"We found a load of mother fucking aliens. They sabotaged an engine." Fury said.

"Where are they from?"

"Asgard." Natasha said. She could tell Fury was going to ignore Thor.

"What?" Thor said angrily, standing.

"You would call my brethren enemy? Call me here to attack them?"

"Actually, they're the ones who called us enemy. They somehow got on board and sabotaged an engine before we did anything to them. And they shot me." Fury said.

"What?" Thor asked.

"They shot me. They're the ones who made the first move here."

"But... Why on Midgard would they do such a thing?"

"We don't know. Now, you're being split up. Natasha, Rogers, you're going together. Stark and Thor, you're together. Now suit up and kill some people."

They stood and left. Once out of Fury's earshot Natasha turned to Steve.

"Let me make one thing straight. The only time you can say one word to me is to tell me about an enemy that's about to sneak up and try kill me. Touch me and you die. Understand?"

"Nat-" He started.

"No! That's speaking! Twice more, you die."

He nodded mutely.

"Now go get changed."

He walked off.

She leaned against the wall, tapping her foot impatiently.

He came out, shield in hand, after only a few minutes.

They took the elevator down.

"Go around that corner." Hill said into Natasha's earpiece.

Natasha signalled to Steve to follow.

She rounded the corner and struck.

It was only two men. She had them both out before he could even get there.

"There's two more. In the room at the end of the corner."

Natasha nodded. She ran forward lithely, not making a sound. She didn't even pull out a weapon as she kicked open the door. The soldiers were caught by surprise.

She ran forward and placed both hands on one of their shoulders. She kicked the other guys face before bringing a heel back to his balls.

It all happened in half a second, tops.

She shot both their legs and left.

"Got any more for me?" She said into the earpiece.

"A group of four. They're patrolling the corridor around the corner."

"Thanks."

Natasha walked forward. She faltered slightly after a few steps. It was getting difficult to breath. She looked over at Steve. He was fine.

Natasha ran ahead.

The men were joking around, laughing.

Natasha shot two. She ran up the wall and grabbed onto a bar on the ceiling. She swung forward and kicked them both in the face.

But just as she jumped down one of the men staggered to his feet. He punched her in the gut. She screamed in agony and automatically twisted his neck.

"Natasha?" Steve yelled, running forward.

She put her hand over the fresh gunshot wound. When she took it away it was smeared with scarlet blood.

"What's wrong?" He yelled, panicking. He put his hand on her arm, not thinking.

She punched him. He staggered back.

"What the hell was that?" He yelled.

"I told you not to touch me!" She screamed through immense pain.

She kneed his crotch.

"Are you insane?" He gasped from the floor.

"Well I must be if you didn't even tell me who the hell I was!" she screamed back. She kicked his stomach and walked off.

"Agent Romanoff, Fury is threatening to kill everyone if you don't stop whatever the hell it is you're doing." Hill said through her earpiece.

Natasha breathed in. It was laborious and difficult. "Never." She pulled out the tiny device and stamped on it.

Natasha pulled out two guns. She leaned against the wall, barely standing. She felt weak and the pain was crippling.

She saw two more and shot them.

She continued, breathing heavily. Every breath was a challenge. She knew she should stop. But her pride stopped her. She hated admitting defeat.

Then there was another two. Her vision blurred. The two men seemed one. Her hand shook as she aimed the gun.

She fired. It missed by a mile.

Then one of the men smiled. She was an easy target. She closed her eyes and waited. At least it would be an honorable death.

Steve struggled to his feet. He spit out blood and walked forward. Natasha really hadn't lost that magic touch that could kill a guy in half a second. Thankfully she would have gotten in serious trouble if she had killed him.

He had to find her. He had seen the blood on her hands. She could be seriously hurt.

He ran forward. There were spots of blood on the floor. They started getting bigger and gradually formed a line. He could see bloody hand prints on the wall.

He ran faster. Then he heard a gunshot. He pushed himself to go faster. Then he saw her.

Two soldiers started smiling as they readied their weapons.

It seemed to happen in slow motion. The bullet sped straight to Natasha's heart. Steve pounded forward.

All reason and sense leaving him, he threw himself in front of the bullets path. It went into his chest.

Steve didn't hesitate before throwing his shield at the two soldiers. He grabbed Natasha's body and ran.

He maybe had a few minutes before the pain became too much. As it was it felt like someone had ripped open his chest and randomly started stabbing things.

He saw an elevator and threw her body in. Leaning against the wall, he pressed the button for the infirmary.

He sank to the floor. His hand went to his chest. It felt so wet.

His vision became hazy and he passed out.

Tony fired at another soldier.

"Tony, it's all on you and Thor now. We need you." Hill said.

"What? What happened to the nutjob and the golden boy?"

"Both are currently in surgery. Natasha got shot in the stomach earlier before you arrived and didn't do anything other than get bandages and drugs. She started bleeding seriously. Steve touched her, she freaked out. Natasha punched his face, kneed his balls and kicked his stomach. She continued walking and dying-"

"Walking and dying? How is that even possible?"

"She's a woman. She can multi task." Hill replied matter-of-factly.

"Women are confusing and arousing creatures."

"Is everything about sex with you?"

"It's debatable. So what happened to the legendary Capsicle?"

"Natasha encountered soldiers. She couldn't fire, they shot her, he arrived just in time to literally take a bullet in the chest for her."

"How heroic." Tony said, killing another Asgardian.

"And stupid. Apparently they didn't include brain upgrades back when they upgraded the rest of him."

"Hey! That's my line!"

"You two stop flirting before I tell Pepper!" Fury yelled.

"Anyway, now they're both in major surgery and it's all down to you and the god." Hill continued.

"Can't we just let the hulk out of his cage?"

"We could try, but I'd rather not die in a sinking ship due to sheer stupidity."

Tony continued fighting. Thor threw his hammer and killed three.

Not to be outdone, Tony blasted a pipe which collapsed onto four.

"Go to the second engine now! They're headed towards there."

Tony walked forward. Thor followed.

They were nearly there when the whole ship lurched to the side.

"They've taken out another engine! Continue there. I'll tell you how to fix it." Hill said. She sounded genuinely scared.

Tony ran forward. The ship continued lurching.

Finally they got there.

"What now?"

"Get the blades spinning again."

Tony swam out. He pushed as hard as he could. Slowly the blades moved. They got faster and faster until he didn't need to push.

"Good. Now get out of there and do the other one."

Tony quickly flew out of the water. He dived back in and swam to the blades. They were harder. It was a lot longer before they were independent.

He flew back out.

"Get back to the other engine. Thor needs backup."

He flew there quickly. The god was indeed in need of backup.

Tony killed a few.

"How many are there?"

"On the entire ship? Not including the ones that are just knocked out, there's 100."

"Shit."

"Shit indee- Oh no."

"What happened?"

"There's some up here! In the control room! Shit!"

Tony heard gunfire.

Then it went code red again.

"Could all personnel who are not performing an absolutely necessary job go to the infirmary. If you don't already have a weapon go to the armory." It was Hill. She sounded perfectly calm.

"Oh shit this is so not good." Tony said.

"Should we not go to the infirmary?" Thor asked.

"Yes. We should."

They fought their way through. Somehow they made their way to the infirmary unscathed.

There were already a few people on beds. Fury was angrily storming around, muttering to himself.

"So why here?" Tony asked Hill, who was having a deep graze inspected. "Doesn't seem like the best place for a battle."

"It's protocol. Protect the people. Not the ship. Fury doesn't like it though."

"So we're just giving up the control room?"

"We need to prioritize. The control room only has the power to move the ship. So long as we keep control of the armory and the infirmary we should be good."

Tony nodded. "Where are they?"

"That door." Hill nodded towards it, immediately knowing what he meant.

Tony walked towards it. He opened it.

There were two more rooms. Both had glass windows.

He looked through the first window.

Steve looked awful. Tubes sticking out of him, pale almost white skin. His chest has been cut open. The surgeon pulls out a tiny bullet as Tony watches.

He moves to the second window, where Natasha is.

She's the same. Tubes sticking out, unhealthy pale skin. Her stomach is open.

Tony starts feeling slightly nauseous looking. In the reflection in the glass he can tell his skin is almost green.

He expects Natasha to walk over and say something like;

"What's wrong? Does the legendary Iron Man really feel sick over a little guts?"

But nobody did. The reflection stayed only him and the wall.

With a shock, Tony realized what this means. He doesn't not want her to live. And he doesn't not not not not not not not want Steve to live.

He left.

"Hey! Stark! We need you out in the corridor. And you have full communications in that suit right?" Hill said.

"Yeah."

"Send a message to Barton. Tell him it's complete radio silence except for you and that under no circumstances is he to contact control room, especially not to request landing permission."

Tony nodded. He got Jarvis to text it while he went outside.

In the narrow corridor the battle was raging. There were bodies everywhere, from both sides.

Tony immediately started firing. The Asgardians were all grouped together.

Thor didn't seem happy killing them. He tried using non lethal force, but with a hammer that heavy it was pretty hard.

More soldiers kept on coming, from both sides.

Barton landed slowly, trying not to make too much noise. He climbed out of the plane and went straight to control room.

The Asgardians were every where. He killed as many as he could before going to the infirmary.

Hill immediately told him to go around a different corridor and attack from behind.

But to do that he would have to use an elevator.

There was already an Asgardian soldier in it. He didn't seem to realize that Barton was the enemy.

"You the reinforcements? We called for you ages ago!"

"Yes. It took a while getting here."

"Oh. You know, this is my first battle."

"Really?" Barton said, feigning interest. "And your last." he whispered, stabbing the soldier in the back.

Barton stepped out. The corridor was deserted.

He quickly made his way to the back of the corridor.

A group of soldiers arrived. Again, they thought he was one of them.

"Thank god you're finally here. We need Come on, follow me."

Barton walked behind the soldiers. There was for of them, walking in diamond formation.

Barton stabbed one of them silently.

They continued walking. Nobody noticed.

Barton got out another knife. He stabbed two more.

He silently walked up and got the last one in a chokehold.

"Tell me everything you know."

"What?!"

"Before I kill you. If you tell me you die quick."

"Reinforcements were supposed to arrive immediately after we first got here. They still haven't shown up."

"Why are you here? I thought Asgard wanted nothing but peace."

"The Allfather is angered by the situation with the girl."

"Jane Foster?"

"No. The redhead. The mother of Thor's child."

"What? You're lying!"

"I speak the truth. She appeared in Asgard many months ago. I saw the growth of the child inside her with my own eyes. They were to wed. But the night before she escaped. Thor went with her. Her actions anger the Allfather greatly. As does Thor staying here."

"What?" Barton said. He let his arms loosen.

The soldier struck and tried escaping.

Barton barely paid attention as he fired the arrow and ended a life.

The man must be lying. It couldn't be true. But then a long forgotten memory came back to him.

It was the morning before Natasha left. He had found a positive test in the bathroom. When he had asked her what it was she had said it was a diabetes test. When he asked why it was positive she said it worked wierdly and positive meant you didn't have it. He had believed her.

Barton pushed his feelings down. The mission wasn't over yet.

He continued walking.

Then he turned a corner and found the main battle.

He caught Tony's eye and nodded toward the large air vent over the Asgardians. It would kill most of them. But both of them would need to fire at the exact same time.

Barton loaded one of the explosive arrows.

He mouthed 1,2,3.

It was perfectly timed. The vent collapsed on most of the soldiers.

The few that survived were terrified.

Then somebody started talking over the intercom.

"To all puny humans currently listening. You have one hour to hand over Thor and the child. Resistance is futile. Have a good day."

Barton's stomach flipped. Together he, Tony and Thor killed the last of them.

"We have to do something." Tony said.

"There's only 3 of us. Who knows what they have?"

"We need a plan."

Thor strode forward and threw open the doors.

There were immediately soldiers attacking him. He killed them.

"Thor! I hope you have come to join us!" Hogun said.

"Indeed. Let us join forces, and crush these puny humans!" Thor smiled.

"Yes. Why don't we go to them now?"

"Wonderful idea!"

Thor led them out. He paused and turned after only a few steps.

"Stop." He commanded.

Tony and Barton revealed themselves.

"You aren't attacking anyone." Tony said arrogantly.

One soldier tried running. Tony shot him.

"Anyone else want to try? Come on, I dare you!" Tony said.

"Thor. You would do this to your own people?" Hogun pleaded.

"And you would do this to yours? Act out against the allfather?" Thor said.

"I am not acting out. The allfather told me to come. To attack and bring you back."

"And he said nothing of my child?"

"No. I was, as the puny ones say, throwing you a bone."

"Your kindness awes me." Thor said sarcastically.

"It is not too late. We could go back, together... As friends and brothers."

"It was too late the second you stepped onto this planet with the intent of war."

"I beg of you. Spare me."

Thor softened. "You will be imprisoned until we decide what to do with you."

Thor nodded at Tony and Barton.

In only a few seconds they killed everyone but Hogun.

Weapons pointed at Hogun, the foursome made their way to the infirmary.

Hill immediately pounced on them.

"What the fuck was that?" she screamed.

"We just saved your ass. You should be kissing our ass's." Barton said smugly.

Tony smirked and high fived him.

"No I should not! You acted without orders!"

"Orders shmorders. Who cares?"

"I do! I think the president will probably be pretty pissed as well!"

"President shmesident."

"Stop doing that!" Hill screamed.

"Never shmever."

"That doesn't even make sense!"

"Sense shmense."

Hill screamed and stormed off.

"Nice!" Tony said, high fiving Barton.

"Is she usually that loud?" Thor asked.

"It varies."

"Where's Natasha?"

"I don't know. She should be out of surgery by now." Tony said, looking around at the empty beds.

"Agent Romanoff? She's in a private room down there." A nurse said, pointing at a room.

Barton went down to it. Tony went with him.

"Is it true." He asked, staring at her unconscious body.

"Is what true?"

"I interrogated a soldier. He talked about a red haired woman that went to Asgard. He said she and Thor have a child."

Tony was stunned into silence for a moment. "Yes."

"What the hell happened over the past year and a half? And don't say Natasha was busy playing happy families with Thor."

"She went to Asgard-"

"I know that part. I know she got away."

"The tesseract sent her to a place in Russia."

"Russia?"

"What do you know about Natasha's childhood? How she became Black Widow?"

"I know she started young. Not that much though. She never talks about it."

"Yeah. When she was 4 the Russians started a program. The Black Widow Program. The aim was to create the perfect spy. It was towards the end of the cold war. They were desperate.

They started recruiting young girls. And when I say recruiting, I mean going to houses and threatening the parents.

Natasha was one of around 10. The youngest. Defenseless and innocent.

They were all sent to a lab in Siberia-"

"A lab? So she's like Steve?"

"In some ways yes, in other ways not at all. Steve had a choice. He wanted to do it. Natasha... She was four years old. Even if she had said no they would have either done it anyway or killed her and her entire family. And Steve was what, 24? He had at least fully matured. Natasha was little more than a toddler. She wasn't ready for any of the kind of shit that was about to happen to her.

Anyway. It was all mostly experimenting. I think some of it was vaguely based on what they knew about Steve.

Two of the girls died because something went wrong with the daily injections they were all given. Others-"

"So what was so bad about this place? An injection a day?"

Tony glared at Barton. "Isn't that enough? Innocent young children being ripped away from their families to be turned into weapons?" Tony snorted. "I wish it were only that bad. But no. It was far far worse. They slept in prison cells, locked in like animals. Occasionally the guards would "forget" to feed them to teach them a lesson. That wasn't all the guards did though. Most of the abuse came from them. And luckily for all those children, they weren't preferential. There was all kinds of shit. Verbal and physical abuse. Even sexual.

But somehow Natasha survived all of that. The injections started working for her. Eventually she managed to escape. If any of the other girls were still alive she probably would have taken them too. By that time the cold war was long over. She was 13.

So, she became a ruthless killing machine for hire. Until she met you."

"What does this have to do with what happened when she left?"

"The tesseract sent her back there. To the facility where it had all happened."

"What?"

"That's it. All Q and A will be at the end.

Well, some genius had let the doctor who had run the place in the first place but the property privately."

"But-"

"Natasha was stuck there. Pregnant. Defenseless. Innocent. Not entirely different from the last time she had been there. Her body held her back.

By the time we found her she had completely cracked. She had had the baby, and probably never even got to hold it. Her body was awful. Malnourished. Diseased. She had tried killing herself.

The doctor got away with the baby. Eventually we got it back.

But Natasha was... mentally unstable. She thought she was still a child... trapped in that place. It was bad. She thought I was one of the guards because I looked like him. Fury too. Steve was the only one she wasn't terrified of. Then one night she jumped off the ship. Into the ocean. She tried killing herself. Steve barely managed to save her.

Fury decided none of us could stay here. She and Steve got an apartment. For a few months they were happy together. She loved him. Then she remembered everything. Came back here. Hated Steve. That pretty much brings us up to the present." Tony said, looking at the white face surrounded by red curls.

"Excuse me. I have a long list of guys to punch." Barton said. He punched Tony and walked out. He saw Thor and punched him. Fury was beside him. Barton punched him too.

Hand broken, Barton stormed into the operating theater where Steve was.

The doctors and nurses screamed at him to get out but he ignored them until he had punched Steve.

Fury's nostrils were flaring outside the OR.

"What. The Hell. Was that?" Fury yelled.

Tony and Thor were looking equally angry behind Fury.

"You hurt Natasha."

Fury punched Barton. Clint was immediately out cold.

Thor turned and walked away. Then Agent Hill walked up to him, carrying a cell phone. Her eyeliner was messy and it looked like she had been crying.

"Lady Maria! What is wrong?" Thor said gently.

"It's for you. It's Jane. Oh my god, you should probably sit down!" Hill handed Thor the phone and walked away before she started crying.

Everyone in the infirmary watched carefully. Hill never cried. Ever.

"Jane? What is wrong?" Thor said into the phone.

He heard sobbing on the other end of the line. "Oh my god, Thor..A guy broke into our apartment!" Jane sobbed.

"Is that all? That is no reason to cry. I will be there soon!"

"No Thor. You don't understand! They killed him. They killed the baby. Eric is dead!"

Everyone heard the crunch of metal being smashed.


	9. Chapter 9

Tony grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the liquor cabinet. He opened it and collapsed onto the couch.

Another crappy day. Dead baby, around 50 dead soldiers. Another war looming in the balance.

And nothing but a cold and empty tower to come home to.

Pepper had left. Two months and nineteen days ago. He hadn't told anyone. When she came back from comic con she seemed sadder. More reserved.

A few days later she left. He came home and her bags were packed. His mind drifted back to that night.

Pepper stood waiting in the living room.

Tony drunkenly stumbled in. He had probably had too much that night. And every other night before.

"I'm sorry Tony." She said thickly, wiping her eyes.

"Sorry for what?" He slurred.

"I'm leaving."

"Another business trip? Really?"

"No. I'm not coming back. Not until you stop drinking."

"I don't drink that much..."

"Yes you do. I can't just sit around and watch while you kill yourself. This has been going in for too long. You need to stop."

"It hasn't been that long..."

"Yes it has. Ever since New York you've been drinking more. Staying out late. I can't take it."

"Please don't go!"

"I'm sorry. I have to."

"But I love you!"

Pepper bent down and picked up the small bag at her feet.

She stopped beside him. Her lips gently met his. Tony froze as she whispered in his ear.

"I will always love you."

And now here he was. Drinking alone again.

Tony staggered to his feet. He went into the bathroom and pulled out some sleeping pills. He swallowed a few and shut his eyes. But awful images flashed before his eyes. He opened them quickly.

Eventually he passed out.

Tony's cheek was stuck to the bathroom floor. Sunlight was streaming through the window.

He quickly became aware of what had woken him. His phone was buzzing.

Groaning, he answered it.

"What?"

"Tony. I just thought I should tell you that Rogers just got out of surgery." It was Hill.

"He just got out now?" Tony looked at the clock on his wall. 8.39.

"It was a complicated surgery in an even more complicated place."

"How's Natasha?"

"You should probably come in. She isn't taking it well."

"How are you taking it?" Tony asked. He knew Hill had liked the baby. She had even spent her two weeks vacation in New York to visit the baby.

"I'm fine." Her voice sounded tight.

"Have a bird waiting in JFK."

"Of course."

Tony hung up. He struggled to his feet. His head was pounding and his mouth felt like sandpaper. Upon standing he promptly went over to the toilet and vomited.

Leaning heavily against the wall, Tony went over to the pill cabinet. He found some pain meds and swallowed a few.

Head spinning, Tony quickly showered and got dressed.

Tony grabbed a pair of shades and left. He took a cab to the airport.

As requested, a military air carrier was waiting with a pilot.

Tony quickly boarded.

The flight there was short.

Tony managed to get off the plane without falling or swaying too much. He went straight to the infirmary.

Natasha was awake. Although her ivory eyelids were shut when he entered, they quickly flickered open.

"Tony."

"How are you?" Tony asked awkwardly.

"Shit. The doctors said I won't be better in time for the funeral."

"I'm sorry-"

"Don't be. Do you promise to keep what I'm about to say secret?"

"Of course."

"There's a part of me that's glad. That's relieved I don't have to pretend to mourn for a child I never met."

Tony looked at her awkwardly.

Natasha sat up properly, slipping her feet onto the cold stone ground. She tried standing and gasped. Tony rushed over.

"What the hell are you trying to do?"

"I need to see him. To know he's okay. Nobody will tell me anything. He saved my life. I have a right to know."

"And you love him."

"Don't tell anyone."

Reluctantly, Tony helped her stand.

Her face contorted with pain.

"Are you sure?" Tony asked cautiously.

She nodded.

Tony helped support her out to Steve's room. She pushed him away at the door and shut it behind her.

With one hand on the bed she went to his side.

His face was pale. The blanket was carefully placed so it didn't interfere with his heavily bandaged chest. He had an oxygen mask over his mouth.

Natasha stroked his nearly white face.

Leaning over, she took away the mask for long enough for her to gently kiss his lips.

Natasha carefully left.

With her hand on the door handle, she turned back.

"I will always love you. But we can't be together. I just wish we could." She whispered.

She could see he was about to wake and quickly left.

Tony looked at her with concern. She didn't say anything as he helped her back into bed.

"Natasha, what hap-"

"Don't. Just leave it Stark."

He nodded and left. Just as he was leaving the infirmary Banner passed him.

"Hey. What are you doing here?"

"Hill called me." Banner replied.

"Yeah. You're probably going to be needed." Tony said. Banner was always good at playing therapist.

Tony walked off and went to his office. He went straight to the liquor cabinet. It was empty.

Fuming, Tony went back to the infirmary. They had to have some kind of alcohol. Maybe some pills too. He easily got into the supply closet and got away with the stuff without anyone noticing. He went back to his office and locked the door. He sat down in the chair and opened the surgical alcohol. He took a mouthful and nearly spit it out. It tasted foul. Pure untainted alcohol.

He forced himself to swallow.

He closed his eyes and his mind filled with images. It tortured him. He drank more, desperate to get rid of them. Tony opened the canister of pain meds. Head aching, he swallowed them all.

Tony tried standing. Water. He needed water.

But his legs buckled under him. He fell back onto the floor. The pill canister rolled out of his hand and the glass bottle of alcohol smashed.

He closed his eyes.

"Sir. We have a situation." Hill said to Fury.

"I swear to god... The next situation that makes me get out of bed can go fuck itself." Fury said, growling. He rolled out of bed and followed Hill.

"It's Stark."

"When it is not?" Fury grumbled.

"Some stuff is mission from the medical supply closet."

"What does that have to do with the asshole?"

"A nurse says she thinks she saw him hiding something under his jacket while walking away from the closet."

"What's missing?"

"Surgical alcohol and extremely powerful pain medication."

"So call him."

"That's where the situation arises. He isn't answering any form of communication."

"So go to his office."

"It's locked, and being a genius, Stark naturally programmed it so you need a scan of pretty much every body part."

"When you say every..."

"Oh sweet Jesus no. Thankfully Stark has not made another excuse for him to take his pants off."

"Good."

"Do I have permission to over ride it?"

"Are you sure you want to? We've caught Stark doing some pretty nasty stuff."

"This is different. Look at this."

Hill brought the security footage from Tony's office on screen.

It showed nothing but a limp hand on the floor.

"Let me see the footage from after the stuff was taken."

Hill immediately rewinded. She saw Stark entering, carrying a bottle of alcohol and a tiny orange canister. He drank some of the alcohol and took all the pills. Then he tried standing but collapsed.

That had happened 2 hours ago.

"Oh shit." Hill whispered.

"Medical team to level 2b. Immediately." She said into her earpiece. She jumped up and ran to the elevator. It could already be too late.

As she ran her mind went through the list of people who would be able to open the door with sheer strength. Steve definitely, but he was bedridden for at least weeks. Thor was already in New York and would take too long to get here. Natasha might, but, like Steve, was bedridden. Barton probably wouldn't be able. Hulk definitely would but that was incredibly risky. But desperate times.

"Dr. Banner report to level 2b." Hill said into the earpiece.

She had a plan by the time he arrived. The medical team gave her two syringes full of heavy sedative.

"What's the problem?"

"I need you to hulk out and get that door open."

"What? Are you insane?"

"I have a plan."

"No way in hell. What's Tony doing that you're so anxious to get the door open?"

"Dying."

"Oh. Shit. Seriously, I can't do this. Whatever your plan is it won't work."

"Wonderful. That leaves plan b."

"What's plan b?"

"Throw a grenade at it."

"At least the damage will be more localized than the hulk would."

Hill rolled her eyes.

She gestured to the medical team and Banner to go around the corner. She walked backwards and threw it. Covering her ears she turned her back.

It went off and she immediately ran in. Tony was lying there, totally unaffected.

She checked his pulse. Nothing.

"Shit no. No no no!"

The medical team pushed her aside.

She started cursing as they lifted Stark onto a gurney.

Banner came in just as she punched the wall. She was kind of proud of the large dent she made.

"You don't seem like the type to get mad easy." He said.

"Maybe Fury is starting to rub off on me." Hill said, sliding down the wall onto the floor.

"Why is Stark nearly dying enough to get you that mad?"

"It's not just that. It's everything. All of this shit. Eric dying, the Asgardians practically declaring war, Steve and Natasha being beaten so easily, and now Stark dead. After New York, I thought that... we would always be able to fight them. That we were safe."

"Stark isn't definitely dead."

"Please. His body was cold. He didn't even have a pulse."

"Maybe you should start focusing on the positive."

"Positive? There is nothing positive about this! This whole situation is fucked up!"

"Steve and Natasha are still alive. We beat Asgard once, we can do it again. There's still a chance to resuscitate Tony."

Hill shook her head. "Even if we can beat Asgard, there's still more people out there. Including ourselves. I mean look at what happened to Natasha. That was all on us. Even if we can fight them all at the end of it we're just going to kill ourselves."

Banner shook his head. "You're wrong."

She ignored him and wiped away the tears.

The doctor desperately did CPR.

"Nurse, get an oxygen mask!"

It was only made more awkward by the large device in Stark's chest. Then by some miracle the EEG machine beeped. And again.

Stark had a pulse.

"Holy shit." The doctor whispered.


	10. Chapter 10

Somehow, miraculously, Tony survived. The doctors didn't understand. He should be dead. He was dead, for around half an hour. They attributed his survival to the device.

Fury demanded he go to therapy.

The first session didn't go well.

Tony yawned. Only another 15 minutes of non commital replies to go.

"I heard you've been having trouble sleeping since New York. Nightmares." The therapist said.

Tony's blood ran cold. "Where? Who the hell told you?" Only three people knew that. Him, Pepper and Jarvis.

"I guessed you wouldn't be forthcoming with information. So I interviewed people."

"You had no right-" Tony yelled.

"So it's true?"

"That's none of your business."

"I'm your therapist. Every aspect of your life is my business. Tell me, why do you think you're the only one of your teammates suffering long term adverse affects?" The doctor said coldly.

"Because they're all soldiers!" Tony exploded. "They're trained to do this! I amn't! I'm just the guy that created a suit!"

Tony jumped up and stormed out.

The therapist smiled. The reaction had been perfect. He had learned a lot.

Natasha focused on her workout. She ignored Banner's constant talking.

"Natasha!" He yelled. She looked at him. "You need to go see him!"

"No I don't."

"Yes you do. You can try and hide it all you want but I see through you. You love him."

"No I don't."

"Just go see him."

"No! I can't!"

"You can. At least as friends..."

"I really can't."

"Why not?"

"Because I made a promise."

"A promise? With who?"

"Just leave it Banner." She snapped.

"No. Tell me."

"I made a pact with god."

"God? You mean Thor?"

"No. I mean- Just leave."

"You mean like the Christian god?"

"Yes and no. Any god there is."

"What exactly is involved in this pact?" Banner asked, trying to hide the laughter from his voice.

"Just fuck off Banner."

"No. Tell me."

"I woke up. Before Tony arrived. It was the middle of the night. I got out of bed and heard people. They were talking about Steve. One of them asked if he was going to make it. The answer was no. I was desperate. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if he died saving me. So I snuck out of my room. I went above deck and prayed."

"Prayed?"

"I was desperate. I made a promise that if Steve lived I would never go near him. I would go back to Barton."

"Why? How did Barton factor in?"

"I don't know. I was rambling." Natasha wrapped her hands and went over to the punching bag.

"So what makes you think it was god that saved Steve?"

"I went back to bed. The same people were talking. One of them said it looked like Steve would survive."

"And you thought god saved him?"

"Look, it's my life."

"Except that it's not. This isn't just about you."

"Just go."

Bruce turned.

"Just a warning, you tell anyone you die."

He nodded and left.

Natasha punched the bag and sent it flying to the other side of the room.

Clint sent another arrow flying at the target.

"Clint?"

He turned. It was Natasha.

"Natasha?"

"Do you still love me?" She said softly, getting straight to the point.

"I- Of course." He doubted these feelings would ever go away.

"Good." Natasha said. She walked over and kissed him.

"I love you." She lied, whispering what he wanted to hear most in his ear.

"What? But I thought-"

"It's always been you."

Clint smiled.

Fury angrily sat down at the briefing table. He was not happy that Barton had just decided to call a briefing without asking.

"So what's this about?" Tony asked.

"We have news!" Clint said. He seemed happy, arm around Natasha. Natasha was far too giggly and smiley for it to be real.

"We're engaged!" He said.

He was met with silence.

Bruce, Tony and Thor looked at the two.

Steve was looking anywhere but there. After a tense moment he stormed out.

Fury glared at the two. He was not happy.

"So you think you can just decide? You're honeymoon still counts as vacation time."

And so, for the second time in her life, Natasha was thrown into preparations for a wedding she didn't want to happen. But any time she doubted her choice she thought about how much worse it would be if Steve had died.

Banner continued to try and persuade her to at least talk to Steve.

She refused.

She and Clint bought an apartment in New York. For a while she thought that maybe, just maybe, she might be able to do this. To live with Clint.

Natasha was planning the kind of wedding most little girls would dream of. White meringue dress, the Plaza booked. Under threat of death Hill agreed to be maid of honor. She was about as approving of the wedding as Steve.

Natasha threatened death a lot. She threatened Tony, Thor, Bruce, Hill and Fury when they were going to tell Clint. She threatened Bruce when he refused to be best man. Pepper also reluctantly agreed to be a bridesmaid.

Steve hated her. She knew that. But she would rather he hate her than he be dead.

Tony brought Clint, Bruce and Thor to Las Vegas the day before the wedding.

Natasha sat on the sofa. In her hand was the slip of paper Bruce had given her months ago. It had the address of the gym where Steve spent most of his time.

She debated whether to go. She missed him so much her body ached with loneliness.

Sighing, Natasha stood and grabbed her bag.


	11. Chapter 11

I nervously step out of the cab. I have no idea what to expect. Certainly not a warm welcome.

My phone rings and I pull it out. Clint is calling. I hit ignore and walk into the building.

I seem out of place in this gym, wearing jeans, a turquoise babydoll and 3 inch heels.

I walk over to the desk.

"Hi. I'm looking for Steve Rogers."

The overweight middle aged man behind the desk looks at me in awe.

"Over there." He eventually says, pointing behind him.

I smile at him and walk over.

Steve is training on a punching bag. He's only wearing khaki combat trousers. "Hey." I say just as he punches the bag, sending it flying across the room.

He turns. "What do you want?" His voice is hostile and unwelcoming.

"I just... The wedding is Saturday."

Mentioning the wedding is a mistake. The bag he just hung up is immediately sent flying with a single punch.

"I heard."

"I just want to make sure you're okay with it."

"I'm fine." His actions tell a different tale. Another bag goes flying.

"Please. I just..."

"You just what? Hate me? Yeah, thanks, I got that."

My eyes fill with tears. His words hurt.

"We can't be together. I just wish we could."

Then something comes back to Steve. At the time he had dismissed it as a dream or his imagination. Natasha, gently kissing him. Standing at the doorway in a white hospital gown. Saying she would always love him, but they just can't be together, that she wishes they could.

Then suddenly his rough hand grabs my waist and pulls ne toward him. He looks at me for a moment. And then he's hungrily kissing me.

My arms go around his neck. I wrap my legs around him.

I moan with desire. He carries me somewhere. I don't pay enough attention to know where. All I know is this sudden passion that grips my body. He turns away for a second to lock the door and that is all it takes for my need to become inflamed.

He pulls the top over my head and throws it aside.

The moment is so intense and filled with desire that I forget everything except for the two of us.

"Oh. My. God." I barely get it out.

Steve's gasping for air. Being a super soldier, it was 6 rounds before he felt even remotely tired.

I amn't complaining though. My hand reaches for his.

"Do. That. Again!" I say, still breathless.

Around an hour later, my phone rings.

I let it ring, in no hurry to leave this place where it is just me and Steve and lust.

I close my eyes as mind numbing bliss takes over my body.

But this cannot go on. Much as I wish it could, this is a public place. The manager starts hammering on the door. He wants us out.

Embarassed, I pull on my clothes. Steve is instantly at my side. He places soft kisses on my neck. For a moment I am encaptured by this pleasure.

But then someone else starts knocking.

I pull away and walk out.

Barely able to walk, I get in a cab and go home. But it doesn't feel right, sitting in this apartment that is filled with memories of Clint.

I wonder what this will do to him. This most recent betrayal of mine.

I stay in for the night and go to bed early.

The next morning my phone rings early, waking me. It's Fury.

"Natasha."

"What?"

"It's Rogers."

It's Rogers. The words echo in my mind. What do they mean? He couldn't have... died? I start to feel slightly sick at the thought. It's my fault. I broke my promise to god and Steve has payed with his life. But this is silly. It won't be something like that.

"What about him?"

"He got run over."

I drop the phone. Bile rises to my mouth. This is my fault. He is dead because of me. Ridden with guilt, I run to the bathroom and what little was in my stomach I quickly vomit up.

Back in my room, Fury is screaming into the phone.

"Please just tell me. Is he dead?" I say.

"No, but-"

I quickly hang up. This is obviously a sign. I can't go near Steve.

Clint arrives back a few hours later. He greets me warmly with a kiss.

"How was it? Were you ok?" He asks me.

"Of course. It was only one night." My reply is distant and nonchalant. I go and pack my bag. Like any other obsessive bride, I insisted on spending the night in a hotel so we don't see each other after the rehearsal dinner.

Now I am glad to have an excuse to leave this place.

At the rehearsal dinner Bruce corners me.

"You can't go through with this!"

"Why not?"

"Because you're in love with another guy."

"That I can't be with."

"Your pact with god is ridiculous. Do you really think that after everything there still is a god?"

I look at him coldly and push past him.

Everything else goes fine. I have confidence that everything tomorrow will go off without a hitch.

But everything feels wrong. When I put on the ridiculous dress I feel too defenseless. The large skirt restricts my movement.

Hill helps me with tight lips. I know she disapproves. Pepper and Jane seem equally uncertain. They've heard from Tony and Thor about who my heart really lies with.

The three leave suddenly when Maria gets a text.

Steve comes in. He looks as gorgeous as ever, not a scratch.

"Steve! What are you-"

"Just stop talking! Bruce told me about the promise and trust me, even in my day and age that would have been considered ridiculous! Please!"

His eyes are desperate.

As I hover in indecision I hear an explosion.


	12. Chapter 12

Steve looks up. Clearly I'm not imagining it.

"What was that?" I ask, scared.

"I don't know."

Then Hill bursts in.

"Guys, we're going to have to are attacking."

"What? Now?" I scream.

"Yeah. We need to get to Stark Towers."

But as she speaks soldiers enter. They surround the three of us.

"Please tell me you were pissed off enough to bring guns." I whisper in Hill's ear.

She smiles grimly. "That's the job of the maid of honor. Always be prepared." She opens the purse and pulls out a gun. She discreetly passes it to me and another to Steve.

"Knife?" I whisper.

She passes a small blade.

In one quick movement I cut off most of the dress. Underneath is a simple lace bodice down to mid thigh. Not ideal, but a hell of a lot better without the skirt.

I slip off the silk high heels.

Hill does similar work on her figure hugging red silk dress. She takes off her heels and readies her gun.

"1, 2, 3... fire!" I whisper.

It's perfectly timed. Two quick kill shots and we all start close quarter.

Soon the men lie dead. The white Venetian lace has blood splattered on it.

"I don't think I'm getting married in this." I say.

Hill smiles and gestures for us to follow her.

We go out to a very scared Pepper and Jane.

Then more soldiers arrive. I rip the bodice in the fight.

Hill pulls out five earpieces. She gives us all one.

"Do you two have any idea how to use a gun?" Hill asks Jane and Pepper.

They both shake their heads.

She shows them and gives two small guns.

"Just how much did you fit in there?" I ask, eying the clutch.

"I have two more guns, a lot more knives like that and ammo. A lot of ammo."

"Impressive. We need a plan." I say.

"How about bait?" Steve suggests.

"Yes. We go back in there, pretend I know nothing, along with Pepper and Jane. You two hide."

"Perfect." Hill says. "And believable."

We go back. Steve gets rid of the bodies and Jane and Pepper help me put the ridiculous skirt on.

It works perfectly. We manage to kill 10 more.

"We have to leave here. Stark Towers is where we need to be."

I nod. "I'm guessing front door is out of the question?"

"Definitely."

I walk forward and slip across the lobby. I jump over the desk. The others quickly follow.

I crawl into the back room and stand. There's a corridor that leads to the kitchen here.

We all go along it. Before I emerge on the other side I carefully listen. But it just sounds like an ordinary kitchen.

We carefully walk across. There's only mild objection if we really get in the way of the busy chefs.

The door to the alleyway is already open.

"How exactly do you know there's a back door in the kitchen?" Steve asked.

"I've had more than a few missions here. And the Plaza is strangely popular with drug dealers."

We walk out and try to be inconspicuous. But that's nearly impossible.

Eventually we just get in a cab.

The traffic near the Tower is insane. As we get nearer we see why. The Asgardians attacked while we were all at the wedding.

"What happened to the guys?" I ask Hill.

"According to Fury, they're in a safe place until they find a way to access the suits and weapons."

I nod and jump out of the car. The others follow as I run to the Tower. The soldiers don't notice until we've killed half their men. Or at least disabled. Jane and Pepper only shot legs and shoulders.

I fight my way to the private elevator. The others soon join me and we go up.

Me, Steve and Hill quickly suit up. Jane and Pepper stand there awkwardly. They don't have suits. They shouldn't even be here.

"Jane, you're good with computers right?" I said.

"Um, yeah, I guess."

"Can you hack?"

"Some stuff. Nowhere near Tony's level, but I know the basics."

"Great. I need you to access every surveillance equipment in New York. That you can. Stay here and be our eyes and ears."

She nods and goes to the computers.

"Pepper. You should be able to use one of Tony's suits right?"

"Well... Yeah... Maybe."

"Try." I command.

She nervously goes out. After a heated debate Jarvis starts putting it on her. She can fly fairly well. I suspect Jarvis will tell her how to do anything else.

"I need you to get to the guys. Bring what you can with you."

She nods and comes back in. She throws one of the tracking bracelets for the Mark 2, and some guns into a bag and takes off.

I turn to Hill and Steve.

"We need to hold this place. They will send more soldiers."

Hill nods.

The three of us nervously step into the elevator and go back down.

The glass doors are cracked and nearly broken.

I take a deep breath and ready my guns.

Then another large crack appears. The glass shatters. The rough soldiers all push through.

The narrowness of the door works to our advantage. They're dead long before they get near us.

But they realize this and start hitting the walls and widening the entrance.

"How many are there out there?" I ask Jane over the earpiece.

"About 200. Is your equipment the only weapon Stark keeps here?"

"I don't think so. I'm pretty sure he has a museum with fully functioning versions of every Stark project, from his fathers first weapon."

"Good." Jane replies.

A few minutes later the elevator bings and inside is a lot of guns. All very large and very powerful.

"Thanks." I say to the genius.

"No problem."

I slowly walk backwards, still fighting and grab one.

It's a grenade launcher. I immediately fire it behind the front line of soldiers.

A lot die instantly.

"Nice!" Steve shouts, over the general confusion and yelling.

I smile and get ready to shoot again as more soldiers move up.

"Pepper and Tony are back." Jane tells me.

I don't need to fire because Pepper and Tony immediately send mini missiles down.

Most of the soldiers are gone by now. We take them out and all go back to the top floor.

Tony isn't happy to see someone else at his computers. But he is impressed at how far Jane has already gone in getting eyes everywhere. She has all CTTV hacked, and wrote a program to alert her of any Asgardians.

"Alright. They've essentially made the Plaza their base. There's small forces dotted across Manhattan, and larger ones in Central Park and the Empire State Building. We're looking at a total army of two thousand." She says, looking at the screens.

"I'm impressed." Tony says, looking at the screens. Whether it's at Jane again or Asgard it isn't clear.

"We need to get everyone else. Where are Thor, Barton, Clint and Fury?" Steve says.

"In a secure place. We should get to them though." Jane says.

"What about the rest of the guests?" I interject. Most of them were military and would be able to defend themselves.

"A lot of them got away the moment Asgard attacked. The rest are relatively safe."

Jane pulls up footage of the Plaza.

A group of 10 are still there, sitting in the seats with guns pointed at them. "I'm pretty sure Asgard wants them for bargaining."

"Good. What kind of police force do we have?" Steve says.

"Not good. 200 men, even including those who have days off."

"We need to make getting the others equipped a priority." Steve says.

The rest of us nod.

"Is anyone capable of lifting the hammer?" I ask.

"Doubtful. We'll need to get Thor here."

Hill slings Clint's bow and arrow over her back. I fill a bag with hand guns, grenades and ammo and put it on my back.

"So where are they?"

"The top floor of an apartment building on 57th. They're hiding in an apartment. The quickest way is to go down the fire escape. Go over roofs."

We all nod and go out.

There's only a small gap between Stark Tower and the next building.

We all jump or fly it with ease.

We continue for a while.

"It's the next building." Jane says to me.

I nod and leap over the gap. Steve easily catches me.

Hill, Tony and Pepper stay outside to secure the perimeter while me and Steve climb down the fire escape.

The apartment is large and spacious. The four men are all wearing tuxedos and sprawled across the various seats and couches.

"What the hell is going on?" Fury immediately says. He doesn't seem happy.

"We're being attacked." I say, distributing the weapons.

"What?" They all say.

"Asgard. They've got incredible timing."

"And you didn't think to maybe tell me?"

"Our first priority was securing Stark Tower." Steve says.

"That only applies if it's under attack!"

"It was. By about 300 men."

"How is Jane?" Thor asks.

"She's fine. She's set up base at the tower and has hacked as many cameras all over Manhattan as possible."

"Good."

"We need to go back to the tower and make a plan. And suit up." Steve says.

"We're waiting on the ground." Hill says into the earpiece.

"We need to go." I say.

The men nod and follow me down. Hill is waiting just outside the door.

"It's not good." She immediately says.

"What happened?"

"Well, they're on twitter, Facebook, instagram, pinterest,MySpace, bebo, blogger... Basically everything."

"How? Thor's been here for what,two, three years? And he's still largely scared of the computer." Tony says.

"It's highly possible they're making the remaining guests do it. Jane, are they?" I reply.

"Oh shit." She says.

"What?"

"It's on a loop. They're feeding me a loop. Around 20 minutes ago a guy was dragged off to a blind spot. And now it's a loop. He's there."

"Shit indeed." I say just as we approach times square.

We're in the center when the large tv screens go black. And then Hogun's face appears on everything.

"Dear puny humans. You're being taken over. Resistance is futile and will be met with torture followed by death. Turn these people in." Photos of us flash on screen. They even got Hill and Fury.

That's when I see the Asgardians that have arrived. They're surrounding us.

"Now bow down." The large face leaves with these final words.

All but us get down on their knees.

"Guns ready." I whisper. I look up at Tony and Pepper, flying above us.

We're hopelessly outgunned. But we stay standing.

The people around us look with hope in their eyes. Most of them were probably here for the battle of New York.

My eyes search their faces. Then I vaguely recognize a guy. He was wearing a police uniform last time. Now he's dressed in jeans and a shirt.

I slowly pull out another gun and let it be passed to him. He stands and aims.

"Foolish humans. You will bow down." One of the Asgardians say.

"I really don't think we will." Fury says.

I look around. A few people point at the gun and themselves. I throw more around. Why not? I have 4 times as many as we could possibly need. They also stand.

"You will bow down." The soldier is getting angry.

"We most definitely won't." I say.

Then he shoots. I easily dodge and shoot him.

Then everything is insane. We're all firing everywhere.

Fury gets shot in the shoulder but continues killing.

I pass out more guns and give half second lessons.

Somehow it works. We manage to kill them.

The people I gave guns to come up to me and try to give it back.

"No. Keep it. You'll need it." I say, shaking my head. "This was just one part of a battle."

They nod uncertainly and walk away.

"You're giving away guns?" Tony questions, landing.

"Yes. Look, there's 2000 soldiers. We can't defeat that. Not alone. Why the hell shouldn't we give a gun to anyone who can handle it?"

"She has a point." Steve says.

"Can we stop fucking talking and get to the tower?" Fury yells.

I see a car, sitting on the street. It's been abandoned and the key is in the ignition.

"Fury, get in the car. Steve, Bruce, Thor, you're going with him." I say.

"What? Why? And I amn't stealing a car." Steve immediately protests.

"Because for now at least we're keeping a low profile. And that suit is anything but. Fury needs to get to the tower fast, and Bruce and Thor are relatively defenseless. Also, Bruce is driving,not you."

"Hey! I'm deeply offended by your words!" Thor roars.

"Who cares?" I say.

"I really don't think I should be driving." Bruce says uncertainly.

"Don't be modest. You don't have a gunshot wound, you're from this planet, and I'm betting your licence didn't expire 70 years ago."

"Hey-" Thor starts.

"Oh my god, will you stop acting like two year olds and get in the freaking car!"

Grumpily, the four get in. I laugh at the sight of them in a Toyota mini.

They drive away.

"So us splitting up is what's best?" Pepper questions.

"We would only slow each other down. Now come on. The rooftop will be fastest."

Hill and me run to a building and go up the fire escape.

We make it there at around the same time.

Jane nervously clears a table for Fury. Thor and Steve had to carry him up.

His face is contorted with pain.

Pepper and Tony quickly change out of the iron man suits.

"We need a doctor. No offence." I hastily add. Jane is nervously removing his shirt to get at the wound.

She looks slightly nauseous when she sees the amount of slightly sticky blood.

I push her aside. "Please tell me you have a stash of drugs somewhere Stark."

He nods and leaves. After a minute he hands me some pills.

I force them into Fury's mouth. He swallows.

"Are you sure we can't go to a hospital?" Pepper says.

"Yes. You saw those soldiers. They were searching, and I don't think I'm being arrogant when I say it's probably for us."

I grab a bottle of vodka and pour it into the wound.

Fury yells out in agony.

Judging from the amount of blood, the bullet hit an artery.

"I need a bandage, clothes, anything."

Somebody hands me a shirt. I rip long strips off and put the rest under his shoulder. I quickly tie the strips around the small wound and apply pressure.

I realize my hands are covered in blood. It's even under my French manicured finger nails.

The bleeding gradually slows to a stop. I back away and wash my hands. The blood is stubborn. I desperately scrub until my hands turn red.

When it finally goes I walk out to the roof.

The city twinkles in the moonlight. Even during war people are out, celebrating. I should be one of those people. But even as I think the words I know they're wrong. Even if the wedding had gone fine, I wouldn't be celebrating.

Steve came out after a while.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Just wondering how my life got this screwed up. My wedding to a guy I don't love was ruined by a bunch of aliens, I had to kill roughly 100 people, and I just washed my boss' blood off my hands. All on my wedding day."

He chuckles lightly. "No matter what you do, life gets screwed up. I'm a living testament to that. In my nineties and I still go to work in a blue skin tight jumpsuit."

I laugh. "You're not really in your nineties."

"Technically I am."

"Well, you certainly have the stamina of a far younger man."

I turn to face him. He kisses me in a rush of passion.

Our bodies morph together in the moonlight. Even through our suits my entire body feels electric.

I don't think of who could be watching until Clint comes out.

"What the hell is this?" He yells.

I jump away from Steve, frightened.

"I... Clint..." I don't know what to say.

He pushes me aside and punches Steve, doing himself more harm than his target.

"Please Clint!" I beg. "Don't do this."

He continues pummeling Steve.

Then the heavens open and the sky starts to pour.

Steve does little to defend himself.

"Please don't do this!" I sob. I can't help the tears that flow freely.

"What the hell? You don't do that!" Clint yells.

Nobody inside has noticed.

I try pulling Clint away but he is fueled by anger and betrayal and easily shakes me off.

In desperation I jump up and do the master thigh hold.

Clint freezes.

"Why? Why would you do this to me Natasha?" He yells.

"Because I love him!" I scream over a crack of thunder. I look inside and see Thor carefully watching. Of course he orchestrated this.

Both men freeze. I quickly flip Clint onto the ground.

I avoid looking at Steve. It's the first time I've admitted that I love him in a long long time. At least, that he'll remember. Memories of that horrifying night come back to me. That gripping fear I felt when I realized Steve might die saving me.

I turn and walk in. But then Steve is reaching out and grabbing my wrist. He pulls my damp body to his and kisses me.

Our mouths eventually break apart but our bodies stay in this sweet and warm embrace. I rest my head on his chest and listen to his slow and steady heartbeat. Like so many others, I never want this moment to end. But sadly we can't always get what we want. My body seems to hate me as I start shivering slightly.

He breaks it first and pulls me inside.

Our friends are huddled around the large modern fire. Jane is roasting marshmallows. Where she got them I have no idea, since I highly doubt Tony Stark leaves marshmallows lying around the place. It's a lovely image that I want nothing more than to be a part of. Thor is filling a two seater, with Jane sitting on the floor in front of him. He's gently stroking her hair. Tony and Pepper are snuggled together on the other couch. Pepper has fallen asleep, and Tony looks close to it. Bruce and Maria are sitting on armchairs near each other, talking. She's smiling flirtily.

Thor looks up as we come in. He grins arrogantly and goes back to playing with Jane's hair.

I sit down on the floor beside the fire and Steve instantly sits beside me with a blanket. He wraps it around me and holds me.

After a while Clint comes in. He's soaked. Nobody pays any attention but me as he glares at me and Steve before walking away.

I am not sure when but at some point I must have fallen asleep. I am lying on a bed, in his arms. Sunlight bathes the room in warmth.

A part of me is surprised to have even made it through the night without the Asgardians attacking.

I am tempted to go back to sleep until Steve starts to wake up.

"Hey." I whisper.

"Hey." He whispers back, eyes closed. "We should probably go. They need us."

"And right now I need you." I whisper, smiling and sitting up.

Steve opens his eyes and grins.

The scene waiting in the kitchen seems strangely normal. The only thing betraying us from being any more than your average luxurious apartment inhabited by ten unrelated adults is the bright light in Tony's chest. And Thor shouting at the shiny toaster to give back his pop tarts.

Once Jane explains it to Thor and the pop tarts are done I make some toast and pour myself some coffee.

Eventually we all sit down at the large glass table.

"Natasha, Steve, you're being moved into one of the sound proofed rooms."

"Why?" I ask.

"Because you woke me up waaaay too early with the screams."

Steve blushes slightly.

"I'm betting you're just jealous because you've never gotten Pepper that loud." I say,smirking.

Everybody laughs. Even Pepper snorts and hides giggles behind her coffee mug.

"Oh yeah... well... Pepper is just more dignified than you!"

Thor laughs so loudly it scares me slightly. Pepper can no longer hide it behind her mug.

I smile triumphantly and continue eating.

"We need to attack today." Steve says.

"We need to wait. There could be our own soldiers coming." Tony says.

"And how many do you think they're going to send? Trust me when I say it won't be a lot. Natasha was right about what she said yesterday. We need to arm the people. We won't win this with only ten people. We'll win this with the ordinary people. Anyone who can handle a gun, we should give it to them."

"We need to get our message out. Tell them. You can't just presume they'll know." Pepper says.

"Jane, can you hack into radio stations?" Steve asks.

"Yeah, but I think tv would be a lot more effective."

He nods.

"You should do it." I say.

"What? No I shouldn't."

"She has a point. You've got the stars and stripes uniform, you've done stuff like this before..." Jane says.

"Somebody else would be better."

"Who? A Russian? The guy who got on the news for all the wrong reasons? The arrogant billionaire nobody could identify with? The god from another planet? Katniss? No offence." Jane hastily adds.

"What about you, or Pepper? Or Maria?"

"Nobody knows who I or Maria are, and even if they did know Pepper it would only be as owner of Stark Industries. You're the man for the job. Some people might even recognise you."

Steve shifts uncomfortably. "Fine."

Jane nods."We should do that first. And then plan an attack with whoever shows up."

"Won't that bring attention to us? With Asgard?" I say.

"Well, they haven't found us yet."

"But we're going to need to tell people where to go."

"Somewhere away from here. Central Park."

"So you're just going to give away my guns?" Tony says.

"To stop a bunch of people from taking over Manhattan, yes."

We finish eating in silence. I barely pick at my toast, nerves eating away my appetite.

After breakfast I go back to my room. I am just slipping off Steve's t-shirt for a shower when he sneaks up behind me.

"Hey." He whispers, slipping his arms around my waist.

I turn my head slightly to kiss him. I don't want to have to stop. For all I know this could be our last morning together. I turn my body fully, wanting as much of me as possible to be touching him.

Regrettably he breaks the kiss.

"We have work to do." He whispers. But his arms don't leave my body.

"I need to shower." I whisper sadly, walking into our private bathroom.

I turn the water as hot as I can bear. But Steve slips in beside me.

I smile and turn to him.

"They say you shouldn't mix business and pleasure." I say, smirking slightly.

"They're fools."

The mood is sombre when we eventually leave. I sit down on the sofa.

Jane has a camera ready. She and Steve go outside to film it.

He returns half an hour later, looking awkward and embarassed.

Jane immediately goes to the computer.

A few minutes later she turns the tv onto CNN.

They're in the middle of the weather forecast when the video starts playing.

When it's done we pack most of the guns into a large van. We leave only a few for Jane, just in case.

Only Maria and Bruce go in the van. I go over rooftops with Steve.

There are around a hundred people waiting. More show up.

Asgardians soon show up as well, but the small force of twenty are soon killed.

"Jane, what's going on at the Plaza?" I ask, getting an idea.

"They've gotten rid of the humans somehow. It's only Asgardians, including Hogun."

"In the entire building?"

"Yes."

I turn to Bruce. He's handing out sniper rifles.

"Go to the Plaza and hulk out." I tell him.

"What? I can't..."

"Come on. It's only Asgardians there. No humans. It would seriously help."

He reluctantly nods. I go with him, mostly to make sure he doesn't get killed on the way.

"So things are working out with you and Steve."

"Yeah, I guess so. I saw you and Maria last night."

"Really?"

"Do you like her?"

"Why don't we focus on the mission?"

I laugh lightly and continue walking.

"So what do you plan on doing?"

"You're going to go in and lock the door. Then hulk out."

"Seems risky. What if the hulk learns how to use a lock?"

I raise my eyebrows at him.

"Fair point. But he could smash through them."

"Which is precisely why I'm going to wait outside with a tranquiliser."

We reach the building. Guards are outside. I kill them quickly.

He goes inside.

I hear a lot of yelling, smashing and girlish screams before he comes back and smashes through the door.

I tranquilise him and he goes back to normal. I carefully walk in, gun ready.

Bodies litter the ground. When I go into the changing room where just 24 hours ago I was getting ready to marry Clint, it looks the same.

My skirt has so much fabric that it stands by itself. There are still bodies there.

I leave this tomb and go back outside.

Bruce is starting to wake up. I slap his face and we walk back.

There's a battle going on by the time we get back. Even though there's 3 times as many Asgardians as we have, we seem to be winning. Almost all the bodies lying on the ground are wearing cloaks and metal helmets.

I join the fight. The soldiers don't expect me. I get the impression they don't think women can fight.

I prove them wrong as I single handedly kill 20 of them in 5 minutes.

"Natasha! That's not all of them! They're attacking an apartment building on 5th Avenue." Jane says.

"Thanks!"

I kill another and go over to Steve.

"Follow me!" I shout over heavy gunfire.

He nods.

I run around the army, killing as many as I can without stopping.

I see them instantly. They're all entering it. I shoot as many as I can while I run forward.

I hear screams when I enter the building. But the stairs have been destroyed.

Backing away, I run forward and launch myself off of Steve's shield. I combat roll onto the first floor.

The first apartment I go into is empty. In the second one an elderly man has been shot.

I hear screams from upstairs and run up. The stairs haven't been destroyed quite so much.

A woman is screaming as she holds a tiny baby. A soldier is advancing on her.

Neither notice me until I twist his neck.

"Thank you." She whispers, trembling. "My husband left, to fight. You're one of the superheros." It isn't a question.

I awkwardly leave and check the other apartments, but there's no more. I run down the stairs.

Steve easily catches me on the ground floor.

We leave but something doesn't feel right. It feels like somebody's watching us.

My suspicions are confirmed when soldiers surround us. Around 50 in total.

"Surrender." The leader says, smiling.

I look around, but there is no escape. The only choice we have is to fight.

"Okay." I say, walking towards him.

Steve immediately sees what I'm doing.

I walk over and hold out my hand.

He smiles and takes it. I step closer and stab him. He crumples to the ground. I back away, shooting the rest.

They are immediately attacking. Backs pressed together, Steve and I move towards the building. A bullet cuts a lock of my hair.

"Cover me." I whisper. I run towards a car. I look back and they're all running after me. I jump over the car and pause.

When they're all running around the car to get to me, I turn back and throw a grenade at the car. It explodes and the fire immediately hits the gas tank. Most of them are killed instantly.

I smile and go back to Steve. We easily kill the rest.

But then more arrive. 50 more. This time they have no intentions of letting us surrender.

Then I run out of ammo. I throw my guns aside and launch into close quarter.

For a moment it seems like we can win this. Until a beam cuts through my arm.

I scream in agony. But I only take a second before killing the guy who shot me.

Steve rushes to my side.

"We're going back to the tower. Now." He says.

"No. I'm fine."

"Remember the last time you ignored being shot? We both nearly died. We're going."

"But-"

"But what?"

"We're in the middle of a battle."

"And the battle will survive if you leave."

"They need you though."

Steve takes a moment to kill another soldier before answering. "They can live without me."

"What do you think Jane can even do? She's scared of blood."

"You shouldn't be out here."

"It's only my arm. I'll be fine."

The soldiers are thinning. Only five are left.

When they're dead we run back to Central Park. While everyone else continues fighting I dive into our van. There's a plain white cloth. I grab it and tie it just above the wound on my arm. It effectively cuts off circulation and the bleeding. I grab an M4 and go back.

"Jane, is this definitely all the Asgardians?" I ask.

"I think so. There could be some in private residences."

"Good."

There's only 700ish left. I grab a load of ammo and climb onto the van.

They make easy shooting. Others follow my example and climb onto things.

When there's only 100 or so left they start to look around. I don't notice as one by one they start to slip away until only 10 remain. I kill them but soon realize there isn't enough bodies. I jump off the van.

"Natasha! Some are going up to the roof of the Plaza!" Jane screams into my ear.

I gesture to my teammates to follow. I run south, through Central Park. As I get there I see it is too late. They've opened a portal and are going through.

I run up the stairs.

There are only 20 left. I'm not sure how many have already gone through.

Clint and Steve are the only ones who managed to keep up with me. We begin fighting.

The soldiers don't know what to do. Some jump into the portal, others stay and fight.

Everything is going fine until Clint attacks a guy who's trying to get away. He punches the soldier. But in desperation the Asgardian punches back with as much force as he can. Clint stumbles back. He reaches the ledge. I expect him to be faking, and do nothing to help him.

But then his body tumbles back, off the roof.

"Clint!" I scream. I run to the in time to see his limp body go into the portal.

Steve grabs my body as I climb onto the ledge.

I shake him off and strike out against the man that punched him. In half a second he lies dead. I kill the few that remain with vengeance.

I bury my face in Steve's shoulder as I start crying.

The war is won, but I've lost.


	13. Chapter 13

This was originally a separate sequel

Clint steadily walks toward Odin. In his hands is the bow that will soon be blessed with the power of the gods.  
Clint kneels before the god.  
Odin takes the bow and murmurs a few words.  
"Rise, soldier."  
"Yes lord?"  
"I have your first command. Raise an army and defeat all of Midgard. Spare nobody."  
Clint smirks. "With pleasure my lord."  
He turns and leaves the chamber.


	14. Chapter 14

This was originally a separate sequel

Clint steadily walks toward Odin. In his hands is the bow that will soon be blessed with the power of the gods.  
Clint kneels before the god.  
Odin takes the bow and murmurs a few words.  
"Rise, soldier."  
"Yes lord?"  
"I have your first command. Raise an army and defeat all of Midgard. Spare nobody."  
Clint smirks. "With pleasure my lord."  
He turns and leaves the chamber.


	15. Chapter 15

I hold the gorgeous two year old tightly.

Around her, friends sing happy birthday.

"Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday to Natalie,

happy birthday to you!"

My daughter looks around, confused by the noise. Her round blue grey eyes are bright and curious.

I hold her down and in one big puff she blows out the candles by herself.

I hand her to Steve and cut the cake.

Tony doesn't look happy in the brightly coloured birthday hat Pepper blackmailed him into wearing. He grunts when I hand him the cake and scowls at the pink icing.

"Does it have to be pink?" He grumbles.

"Natalie likes pink. If you don't want it you don't have to have it."

Tony grunts again and grabs a fork.

"Wonderful party! On Asgard we would only celebrate with a feast. I love the brightness!" Thor says cheerfully. He looks simply delighted with everything.

"Can I go yet?" Fury asks.

"Not until we've opened the presents. And smile before I cut you."

He does some variety of terrifying grimace with a lot of teeth.

"On second thought, stick with the scowl."

He growls and walks away.

"Why am I getting the impression you only threw this party to annoy Tony and Fury?" Bruce says, mildly amused.

I grin. "Doctor! As if I would ever do such a thing!"

He smirks and walks away.

I smile as I take Natalie back from Steve. I go over to the table laden with presents.

They all gather around and watch. The first present I pick up is from Fury.

Natalie rips it open. She struggles with the box and I open it.

I scream when I see what it is.

"You do not give that to a two year old!" I scream at Fury.

He seems to be holding back laughter.

"Who the hell gives a two year old a gun?" I scream.

He can't hold it in any longer.

"Somebody get a camera!" I say. I grab a party hat and get Fury in a chokehold.

He struggles as I force the hat onto his head.

I jump away and pretty much everyone takes a picture. I'm not sure how good they'll be, since everyone is shaking with laughter.

He immediately yanks it off but the damage has been done.

"No more giving guns to two year olds!" I say.

Fury scowls at me.

"Would you mind if I just took back my gift?" Tony says nervously. "What the hell did you give her Stark?"

"It's not impossible I gave her a mini Iron Man hand."

"Please tell me you didn't give my two year old daughter a metal hand that fires bolts of energy at will."

"I'm trying to give up lying. So I probably shouldn't."

"You're an idiot. Anyone else have anything to confess?"

"Um..." Maria says awkwardly.

"What did you give her?"

"A teddy bear shaped grenade."

"Where did you even find something like that?" I ask, more perplexed than annoyed.

"It's custom made."

"Oh sweet jesus. Are you all insane?"

"Debatable." Tony says. Pepper hits his head.

Maria and Fury look down at the ground.

I shake my head. "Shame on you."

Then Thor can't hold it in any more. He bursts out laughing.

This lightens the atmosphere, although I'm still seriously pissed off.

Natalie eagerly continues opening presents. I smile at some of the non weaponised gifts, like a huge stuffed teddy bear from Thor or a beautiful China doll from Pepper.

Fury leaves as soon as I let him, still embarassed and sulky over the hat. Tony and Pepper leave together, Pepper still giving out over the hand. Thor and Jane leave soon after, wanting to get back to their three year old son.

I put Natalie down for a nap.

"So when's the wedding?" I ask Maria, looking at the bright diamond engagement ring.

"Some time in winter probably." Maria says, smiling.

"You two make such a cute couple!"

"We should probably go." Bruce says, smiling.

"Bye!" I walk them to the door.

Steve grabs my waist, smiling. He kisses me.

I push him up the stairs to our bedroom.

In the middle of the night I wake up screaming. I dreamt about Clint again.

Steve wakes up. He holds me as I start sobbing. Eventually I manage to sleep again.

The next morning dawns bright and early.

I throw on a pair of jeans and a t shirt.

"I'm going to get milk. I'll be back soon!" I say to Steve, kissing him lightly.

The sun shines down on me. I start to whistle.

But then a dark cloud blocks the light.

My body tenses. For some reason I expect someone to jump out at me. I shake the idea off as ridiculous and continue walking.

Then five men walk in front of me. They smile threateningly and brandish weapons.

I look around. But I'm surrounded. There's 50 in total.

I pull a knife out of my boot. But I know it isn't enough.

They advance on me. I desperately look around for a way out but there is none.

I strike out and stab one while simultaneously kicking another in the crotch.

For a short minute I think I might win this. But then a blue tipped arrow goes straight to my chest.

My shooter looms over me as my eyelids grow heavy.

"Clint." I whisper as I fade into unconsciousness.


	16. Chapter 16

Steve paced around the kitchen. Natasha had left half an hour ago and she still wasn't back.

He grabbed his jacket and left. He went straight to the small grocery store nearest to their house. But the guy at the till said he had been there all morning and there definitely hadn't been any redheads.

Confused, Steve went to the larger super market. But it was the same.

On his way back he saw a knife lying on the footpath. He bent down and picked it up. It was Natasha's. He recognized the crude N carved into the wooden handle.

Steve ran back to their house. He went straight up to Natalie's room, to make sure she was still there. But her tiny body was still there.

He grabbed the phone and called Fury.

"Rogers. Tell Natasha I hope she's happy. The pictures of yesterday are going all over the helicarrier. Somebody even dared to laugh at me!"

"Natasha's gone."

"What do you mean, gone?"

"I mean gone. Not here. She went out for milk half an hour ago."

"So? Maybe she's just flirting with the cashier."

"Ha ha. I went to the shop she would have gone too and they hadn't seen her. I found one of her knives lying on the ground."

"Maybe she dropped it."

"Then where the hell is she?"

"Calm down Capsicle. You're over reacting."

"No I amn't."

"Look, if she still isn't back by tomorrow I'll look into it. But I guarantee she'll turn up within the hour."

Fury hung up. Steve growled and started pacing again.

The rest of the day passed with unease and restlessness. Steve didn't know what to do. When Natalie woke up and asked for mama, he couldn't answer. He ended up just holding the crying infant.

He tried feeding her but she wouldn't eat. She pursed her lips together. Sighing, Steve cut a slice of the cake from yesterday. She seemed only slightly more willing to eat that.

Sighing, he picked her up out of the high chair.

The clock on the wall said it was 9. That was when Natasha would usually put her down for bed and read her to sleep.

Steve gently took his daughter up to her room. He took off the pretty white dress Natasha had put on her that morning and dressed Natalie in a cute pink onesie.

He put her in her crib and went over to the bookshelf. It was filled with picture books, mostly modern ones. He saw a copy of Winnie the Pooh and took it.

"Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment to think of it." Steve looked up. She was asleep.

He put the book back and gently kissed her forehead, smoothing her strawberry blonde curls.

He went into his room but couldn't sleep. His mind was haunted by what might have happened to Natasha. Eventually he drifted into an uneasy sleep.

Natalie opened her eyes. She wanted her mama.

Quiet as a mouse, she stood up in the crib and swung herself over the railing. She walked across the room but couldn't reach the door handle. She climbed onto the dresser and easily opened the door. She jumped down, her light body not making a sound upon impact.

The door to her parents room was already open a crack.

Natalie was confused by what she saw. The space next to her snoring father was empty. Her mama wasn't there.

She climbed onto the bed but it was still only her father.

Tired, the infant curled up beside her fathers sleeping form.

Her soft breathing soon joined his snores.


	17. Chapter 17

The next morning Steve woke up in a cold sweat. He had dreamt about Natasha.

He looked beside him and smiled slightly when he saw the tiny lump nestled in the crook of his elbow.

Trying not to wake her, he pulled out his arm and stood.

He picked her up and carried her into her crib. She woke up the moment she touched it.

"Mama!" She said instantly. It seemed like she had been dreaming.

Sighing, Steve picked her up and carried her down to the kitchen. He put her down on the counter.

"I want cake!" She said, pouting.

Steve cut a slice and put it on a plate. He handed her a fork.

He put two slices of bread in the toaster and started making coffee.

"Where's mama?" Natalie asked, licking pink icing off her tiny fingers.

"I don't know."

"When's she coming back?"

"I don't know."

"Is she coming back?"

"I don't know."

"Jenny at the park says her mama left and didn't come back."

"This isn't like that."

Natalie observed her father. He was resting his head on a cabinet, eyes closed.

She stood up on the counter and walked over. He didn't notice until she wrapped her short arms around his neck.

He smiled slightly and picked her up.

Then the toast popped out. He put her down.

"Finish your cake."

She nodded and obediently went back over.

He ate the toast quickly and drank a cup of coffee.

After breakfast he showered and dressed them both. He went out and grabbed a cab.

"Stark Towers."

The driver nodded.

Steve pulled Natalie in closer.

"Where are we going dada?"

"Uncle Tony and Aunt Pepper."

The child clapped her hands with glee. She got along well with Tony and Pepper's three year old son, Rob. The two partnered with Chris, Thor and Jane's athletic two and a half year old made a vicious and terrifying trio.

After a few minutes the car pulled to a stop. Steve got out, holding Natalie.

"Put me down!" She said.

Steve shook his head at the precocious little girl and put her down.

She ran straight into the building. He ran after her.

The security guard didn't object as they entered the private elevator.

Tony was in the middle of showing Rob how to hack into the pentagon while Pepper lectured him on teaching moral values.

"Hey." Steve said.

Pepper looked up. "Steve! Welcome! I don't suppose you want to punch Tony while I continue lecturing to try and make more of an impression?"

"Any other day I'd be delighted, but I have things to do. I need you to look after Natalie."

Tony looked over. "Oh no way in hell! I am not letting that little demon stay here!"

"Tony!" Pepper said reprovingly.

"Please."

"Of course she can stay here." Pepper said.

"No! Not happening! Not under my roof!"

"Didn't you once refer to this roof as my baby?"

"I... yes... for which you deserve 12%. But there is no way in hell that brat is staying here."

Tony looked at the two children, who were already smirking mischievously at each other.

"I would suggest you stop arguing before I call the pentagon and tell them what you've been teaching our son."

"If they don't want to be hacked by a three year old then they should upgrade their software. It's all their fault really."

"Just shut up Tony."

"Fine. The devil can stay. But I'm warning you, if my lab goes on fire again-"

"You can set yourself on fire. And I seem to remember that it was only with lessons you gave him in hacking that Rob managed to get into your lab. Where's Natasha anyway?"

"Gone."

"What do you mean, gone?" Pepper asked, concerned. Tony was glaring at the two toddlers.

"I don't know. She went out yesterday morning for milk and I haven't seen her since."

"That's terrible! What do you think happened?"

"I don't know, but I don't think it was willing. I found one of her knives on the footpath."

"Oh my god! You don't think... Asgard?"

"I've thought of it, but it's unlikely. They would have just killed her."

"Then who?"

"It could be anyone. Natasha's made a lot of enemies over the years. I'd say a lot of people want her dead. It's why now that's the mystery. Anyway, I need to go."

"Bye!" Pepper said.

He walked out.

"Natalie's still evil." Tony said, glaring at the infant that was currently running away with his son.

Steve carefully landed the bird. He climbed out and went inside.

Fury was fuming.

"How do you people always get planes without authorization?"

"Where's Hill?" Steve asked, puzzled by the absence of the controlling soldier.

"Wedding planning." Fury growled.

"Still boycotting it?"

"Yes. She's my soldier. And I swear to god, if he gets her knocked up, I will kill them all."

"Of course you will sir." Fury had said he was boycotting Steve and Natasha's wedding, Pepper and Tony's wedding and Thor and Jane's wedding. He had been a groomsman at all three.

"So what happened with Natasha?"

"She still hasn't shown up."

"Oh. Don't worry, I'll look into it. Where's the devil?"

"Stark Tower."

"Poor Tony."

"He seems to have similar concerns. Although he was teaching his own son how to hack into the pentagon."

Fury shook his head. "That man is in desperate need of parenting classes and a year in jail."

"Couldn't agree more." Fury shook his head again and walked away.

Steve was about to go back up and go back to New York when Fury turned.

"You should probably stick around. Just in case."

Steve nodded and left.


	18. Chapter 18

Tears flow freely as I look into the face of my captor.

Clint smiles at me.

"Please! What do you want?" I beg.

"You. Join me. We can rule the world!" His eyes are crazed and I can tell he truly believes his words.

"Of my course! I have always loved you!" I lie desperately.

He looks at me for a second. Then he roughly grabs my jaw and sticks his tongue down my throat.

His mouth tastes foul.

Taking my opportunity, I bite down hard on his lip. I taste blood.

He backs away. I spit on his face.

I wish I could do more, but heavy steel chains bind my entire body to a metal post. He didn't take any chances.

He slaps me hard and my mouth fills with blood.

"Sir? Our position has been compromised." One of the soldiers says.

Clint nods. "We're leaving."

They look away as they start packing up. I take the few seconds to make my mark. I spit out blood in what I hope resembles a C and bite out a few strands of hair. I pray that somebody will find it who knows what it means.

* * *

Steve closed his eyes, leaning back against the pillows.

He had gone to Fury twelve hours ago. Nothing.

"Captain Rogers, report to control room." It was Fury over the intercom.

Sighing, Steve rolled off the bed.

"What is it sir?"

"We found her. Warehouse in New Mexico."

"Really? So soon?"

"I'm already assembling a strike team. I would suggest you suit up."

Steve nodded and left. He went straight to the equipment room and put on his suit. He grabbed his shield and a gun and left.

There was a SWAT team waiting. He followed them into an air carrier.

The flight took a few hours. They landed in an empty wheat field.

"Fury, where is the warehouse?" Steve said into the earpiece.

"Twenty clicks east of your location."

"Acknowledged."

Steve led the team forward. The sun beat down on them, mocking them with it's bright and joyful rays.

Then Steve saw it. It was a large wooden structure, little more then a barn.

He walked forward, jumping over the low wooden fence.

He kicked open the large wooden barn doors.

But nobody was there. Steve walked around the entire building. At a post he paused. There was blood on the floor. He bent down and vaguely recognized it as a C. There was a few strands of silky scarlet hair. The blood felt lukewarm and sticky.

"She was here. She can't have gone far. Look for tire prints, anything!" He shouted to the men, standing.

They searched but there was nothing. Not so much as a footprint.

"Return to base!" Steve ordered.

They walked back to the plane.


End file.
